mess up

phrasal verb

messed up; messing up; messes up

informal

: to make a mistake : to do something incorrectly

About halfway into the recipe, I realized that I had messed up, and I had to start over.

—often + on

She's afraid she'll mess up on the test.

I messed up on my first attempt.

Examples of mess up in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Chatbots still invent information and mess up basic math; concerns over AI’s environmental harms and alleged infringement of intellectual-property rights could substantially slow the technology’s development. —Matteo Wong, The Atlantic, 3 June 2025

The internet has been left in hysterics as a brother and sister tried to decorate a birthday cake, only to mess up repeatedly. —Rachael O'Connor, MSNBC Newsweek, 2 June 2025

Having real liquid, especially a hot one, adds to the risk that an actor will swallow wrong and choke a bit, or accidentally spill the drink; either action can mess up a scene and force a time- and money-consuming retake. —Rich Heldenfels, Boston Herald, 1 June 2025

That’s one person’s mess-up, messing up the whole possession. —Kristian Winfield, Hartford Courant, 28 May 2025

Rhymes for mess up

• backup
• blowup
• breakup
• buildup
• checkup
• cleanup
• holdup
• hookup
• lineup
• lockup
• makeup
• markup