Definition of "mess"

mess¹

/mɛs/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural messes
1. A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding.
  Quotations
  No, look, I know that the place looks like a bit of a mess but it's actually a very delicate ecosystem. Everything is connected. It's like the rainforest. You change one thing, even the tiniest bit, and the whooole rainforest dies. You don't want the rainforest to die, do ya?
  2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4
2. (colloquial) A large quantity or number.
3. (euphemistic) Excrement.
4. (figuratively) A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck.
verb
third-person singular simple present messes, present participle messing, simple past and past participle messed
1. (transitive, often used with "up") To make untidy or dirty.
  1. To make soiled by defecating.
    Quotations
    It seems like all you do is cry, eat, and mess your diapers!
    2000 March 12, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)
  2. To make soiled by ejaculating.
2. (transitive, often used with "up") To throw into disorder or to ruin.
  Quotations
  But it wasn't right to be messing another man's sleep with tidal waves that didn't belong to the other man.
  1905, Arthur Colton, The Belted Seas‎, page 76
3. (intransitive) To interfere.
4. (used with "with") To screw around with, to bother, to be annoying to.

mess²

/mɛs/

noun
plural messes
1. (obsolete) Mass; a church service.
2. (archaic) A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.
  Quotations
  a mess of pottage
  c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, letter to one in prison for the profession of the Gospel
  At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes.
  a. 1645, John Milton, “L’Allegro”, in Poems of Mr. John Milton, […], London: […] Ruth Raworth for Humphrey Mosely, […], published 1646
  [Curry] consists of meat, fish, fruit, or vegetables, cooked with a quantity of bruised spices and turmeric […] ; and a little of this gives a flavour to a large mess of rice.
  1903, Henry Yule, Arthur Burnell, Hobson-Jobson
3. (collective) A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table.
  Quotations
  But that our Feaſts / In euery Meſſe, haue folly; and the Feeders / Digeſt with a Cuſtome,
  c. 1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Winters Tale”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene iv], page 291
4. A building or room in which mess is eaten.
  Quotations
  The police mess had formerly been a maternity home for the wives of the Sultans of the state. Faded and tatty, peeling, floorboards eaten and unpolished, its philoprogenitive glory was a memory only.
  1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 20
5. A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
6. (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
7. (collective) A group of iguanas.
8. (cooking) A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool.
  Quotations
  Eton is renowned for its "messes," and "strawberry mess" is Empress of them all, with raspberry mess as a very good second. It does not at all convey the joys of a "mess" to say that it consists of iced fruit and cream, and somewhat resembles a "fool." It is a thing apart, and should be approached with bated breath and unimpaired capacity.
  1913, Pearson's Magazine, volume 36, part 2, page 373
  "I'll stand you both strawberry mess." It was perfectly impossible for David not to feel elated at sitting down to strawberry-mess with two members of the eleven, in the full light of day, and in sight of the school generally […]
  1916, Edward Frederic Benson, David Blaize, page 284
  Eton mess, for example, which is another name for strawberry fool, links the name of a famous public school with disorder or the army slang for a meal,
  2014, Lindsey Bareham, Just One Pot
  Similar desserts [to Eton Mess] include Lancing Mess (made with bananas), served at Lancing College in Sussex, and Clare College Mush […]
  2015, Darra Goldstein, Sidney Mintz, Michael Krondl, Laura Mason, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, USA, page 243
  One Old Etonian rages that at school the dessert was simply called 'strawberry mess' and was very popular in the tuck shop. It is only outside Eton that the school's name has been added. A similar 'banana mess' is credited to School in Sussex, […]
  2020, Nigel Napier-Andrews, Gentleman's Portion: The Cookbook
verb
third-person singular simple present messes, present participle messing, simple past and past participle messed
1. (intransitive) To take meals with a mess.
2. (intransitive) To belong to a mess.
3. (intransitive) To eat (with others).
  Quotations
  Resolved 18. That no Guide or Interpreter whether at the Factory Depot or Inland be permitted to mess with Commissioned Gentlemen or Clerks in charge of Posts; but while at the Depot they will be allowed per Week 4 days ordinary rations...
  1836, George Simpson & al., HBC Standing Rules and Regulations, §18
4. (transitive) To supply with a mess.

Definition of "mess"

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mess2

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mess¹

mess²