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 Booze wreaks havoc on two of them, in particular, which messes with the rest of them overall. —

Ali Finney, SELF, 19 Apr. 2024 Or from somebody messing with him, or — worse — somebody trying to swindle him. —

Théoden Janes, Charlotte Observer, 15 Apr. 2024 Extraordinary has a great time messing with our previous notions of superpowers by putting them into the hands of ordinary people. —

Tanya Melendez, EW.com, 13 Apr. 2024 Windy days mess with that ideal scenario in a variety of ways. —

Scott Bestul, Field & Stream, 3 Apr. 2024 Quickly pick up dust, hair, pet dander, crumbs, and other daily messes with this small, lightweight cordless model. —

Toni Sutton, Peoplemag, 27 Mar. 2024 But for 50 games, 50 times a year messing with the traffic. —

Mike Hendricks, Kansas City Star, 25 Mar. 2024 Economists and policymakers called it a one-off, citing seasonal glitches and other data quirks that often mess with the start of the year. —

Rachel Siegel, Washington Post, 19 Mar. 2024 Most athletes don’t mess with success, particularly not on an off day in the middle of the season. —

Louisa Thomas, The New Yorker, 30 Mar. 2024

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.