mess up

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

Paul responded by pointing out that Matthews’s husband, Jace Terry, still follows her, messing up Matthews’s plan to cut off anyone who still supports her. — Alejandra Gularte, Vulture, 15 Sep. 2026

His first thought was that some fool pilot clowning around had messed up bad. — Usa Today Staff, USA Today, 10 Sep. 2026

Center Luke Fortner messed up what would have been a first-down pass getting caught downfield after Young had fooled the defense — but apparently Fortner, too — on a run-pass option. — Scott Fowler, Charlotte Observer, 16 Aug. 2026

And yet, besieged by the same afflictions of greed, self-interest and a comical inability to work together, horse racing is doing its damndest to similarly mess up its very good thing. — Dana O’Neil, CNN Money, 5 Aug. 2026

Rhymes for mess up

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