mess with

phrasal verb

messed with; messing with; messes with

informal

1

: to cause trouble for (someone) : to deal with (someone) in a way that may cause anger or violence

I wouldn't want to mess with him.

You'd better not be messing with me.

2

chiefly US : to deal with or be involved with (something that causes or that could cause trouble)

The company doesn't want to mess with small distributors.

He doesn't want to mess with cocaine anymore.

3

: to handle or play with (something) in a careless way : to mess around with (something)

Don't mess with the camera.

Examples of mess with in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

This is a business trip, and nobody messes with Sean Payton’s business in October. —Joe Nguyen, Denver Post, 19 Oct. 2025

Ryan Seacrest and the Wheel of Fortune team had to stop Derek Hough from messing with the titular wheel. —Wesley Stenzel, Entertainment Weekly, 18 Oct. 2025

In the long run, Harper’s primary contributions playing next to Wembanyama are to make the game easier for him and to twist the gravity Wembanyama creates to mess with defenses. —Jared Weiss, New York Times, 17 Oct. 2025

But messing with rates would be a mistake. —Allison Schrager, Mercury News, 16 Oct. 2025