mess with

phrasal verb

messed with; messing with; messes with

informal

1

: 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.

2

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.

3

: 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

Some time later, Velez is seen stepping out of the room and messing with multiple things along one wall. —Joseph Wilkinson, New York Daily News, 5 Aug. 2025

When asked about lowering recruitment standards, Taylor said don’t mess with the military’s method. —Amy Delaura, The Washington Examiner, 2 Aug. 2025

All Nighter has a cult following and five Allure Best of Beauty awards, and why mess with a great thing? —Nicola Dall'asen, Allure, 1 Aug. 2025

Everything else was a scattershot mess with Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr.) taking on the wholly underwhelming villain Whiplash (Mickey Rourke). —Brian Truitt, USA Today, 25 July 2025