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 + onShe'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
But even the most rigorous resolution-adopter will mess up at some point.
—
Gillian Mohney, Verywell Health, 9 Jan. 2026
The Sacramento Bee spoke with Anya-Gafu about what steps state workers should take if California messes up their paychecks.
—William Melhado, Sacbee.com, 9 Jan. 2026
Work is made more stressful thanks to the contributions of her husband, Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), a former diplomat to Lebanon whose current unemployment leaves him a lot of time to mess up Kate’s job.
—Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 2 Jan. 2026
That kinda gets messed up for us.
—Chantz Martin, FOXNews.com, 30 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mess up
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Gillian Mohney, Verywell Health, 9 Jan. 2026
The Sacramento Bee spoke with Anya-Gafu about what steps state workers should take if California messes up their paychecks.
—William Melhado, Sacbee.com, 9 Jan. 2026
Work is made more stressful thanks to the contributions of her husband, Hal Wyler (Rufus Sewell), a former diplomat to Lebanon whose current unemployment leaves him a lot of time to mess up Kate’s job.
—Kevin Jacobsen, Entertainment Weekly, 2 Jan. 2026
That kinda gets messed up for us.
—Chantz Martin, FOXNews.com, 30 Dec. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mess up
Cite this Entry
“Mess up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mess%20up. Accessed 13 Jan. 2026.
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