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
The idea was to have each area consider the same company from their lens in the core curriculum and learn why this company X messed up.
—
Shivaram Rajgopal, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025
Everyone’s not kind of having to cover their ass in case something messes up.
—Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 6 Sep. 2025
The Tigers messed up badly with this one.
—Zach Pressnell, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Aug. 2025
That lack of confidence is charming and funny; when the experts on With Love, Meghan mess up, their humility feels feigned and unnatural, but Martin’s embarrassment only motivates everyone to help him out.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 29 Aug. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mess up
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Shivaram Rajgopal, Forbes.com, 6 Sep. 2025
Everyone’s not kind of having to cover their ass in case something messes up.
—Etan Vlessing, HollywoodReporter, 6 Sep. 2025
The Tigers messed up badly with this one.
—Zach Pressnell, MSNBC Newsweek, 30 Aug. 2025
That lack of confidence is charming and funny; when the experts on With Love, Meghan mess up, their humility feels feigned and unnatural, but Martin’s embarrassment only motivates everyone to help him out.
—Fran Hoepfner, Vulture, 29 Aug. 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 8 Sep. 2025.
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