mess – English verb conjugation

Nominal Forms

Infinitive: to mess sb about
Participle: messed sb about
Gerund: messing sb about

Cognates

-

Indicative

Subjunctive

Conditional

Imperative

you	mess sb about
we	Let's mess sb about
you	mess sb about

Indicative

Conditional

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms

confuse

muddle, mix

clutter

litter, jumble

dirty

soil, smear

Antonyms

dirty

decent, moral, fair, elevated

Additional Information

Phrasal Verbs

Etymology

1. c.1300, "food for one meal, pottage," from O.Fr. mes "portion of food, course at dinner," from L.L. missus "course at dinner," lit. "placing, putting (on a table, etc.)," from mittere "to put, place," from L. mittere "to send, let go" (see mission). Sense of "mixed food" led to contemptuous use for "jumble, mixed mass" (1828), and figurative sense of "state of confusion" (1834), as well as "condition of untidiness" (1851). Meaning "communal eating place"(esp. a military one) is first attested 1536, from earlier sense of "company of persons eating together" (c.1420), originally a group of four. Messy "untidy" is attested from 1843. To mess with "interfere, get involved" is from 1903; mess up "make a mistake, get in trouble" is from 1933, both orig. Amer.Eng. colloquial.
2. Perhaps a corruption of Middle English mesh (“mash”), compare muss, or derived from Etymology 2 "mixed foods, as for animals". Compare also Old English mes (“dung, excrement”).

Verbs referencing "mess"

Spanish meter, Norwegian messe, Norwegian, nynorsk messe.

Sample Sentences