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
This sort of scenario could explain Saturn’s young, ice-rich rings, as well as the bizarre properties of Enceladus, without messing up the properties of the other Saturnian moons.
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Big Think, 9 Oct. 2025
Sweatpants with an adjustable waistband won’t cause discomfort while sitting for long hours during your flight, and the half-zip sweatshirt is easy to put on or take off without messing up your hair.
—Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 6 Oct. 2025
And so the worry is that the AI can stick to the story very effectively and never mess up.
—Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 3 Oct. 2025
There's a reason the host was messing up player names.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 2 Oct. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mess up
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Big Think, 9 Oct. 2025
Sweatpants with an adjustable waistband won’t cause discomfort while sitting for long hours during your flight, and the half-zip sweatshirt is easy to put on or take off without messing up your hair.
—Merrell Readman, Travel + Leisure, 6 Oct. 2025
And so the worry is that the AI can stick to the story very effectively and never mess up.
—Tatiana Siegel, Variety, 3 Oct. 2025
There's a reason the host was messing up player names.
—Dalton Ross, Entertainment Weekly, 2 Oct. 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 Oct. 2025.
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