mess with

phrasal verb

messed with; messing with; messes with

informal

: 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.

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.

: 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 And that small possibility of hope, that tiny chance, messes with your head in a much different way. —

Annie Daly, Allure, 9 July 2024 Bad behavior: Entitled tourists are running amok, defacing the Colosseum, getting rowdy in Bali and messing with wild animals in national parks. —

Andrea Sachs, Washington Post, 8 July 2024 Traveling and being out of your routine can really mess with your poop, Samantha Nazareth, MD, a gastroenterologist based in New York, tells SELF. —

Kathleen Felton, SELF, 28 June 2024 The rounded points are traced with hyperbolas — curves that shave off as much area as possible without messing with the packing. —

Quanta Magazine, 28 June 2024 See all Example Sentences for mess with

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'mess with.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.