messing (up)

verb

present participle of mess (up)
1
as in fumbling
to make or do (something) in a clumsy or unskillful way messed up the drawing and had to start over

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
2
as in disrupting
to undo the proper order or arrangement of a nap had messed up her hair and she looked a sight

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms
3
as in stumbling
to make a mistake if anyone messes up even once while we're recording, we have to start all over again

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4
as in licking
to strike repeatedly threatened that he would mess him up if he cheated at the game

Synonyms & Similar Words

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for messing (up)
  1. fumbling
  2. disrupting
  3. stumbling
  4. licking
  5. blowing
  6. confusing
  7. tripping
  8. pounding
Verb
  • With Yerry De los Santos also fumbling a bunt in the eighth, the Yanks tallied a season-high four errors on the night.
    — Gary Phillips, New York Daily News, 26 June 2026
  • My first few hours with the EM11 NL were marked by overshooting links, fumbling through simple selections, and occasionally wondering why anyone would voluntarily use a vertical mouse.
    — Sascha Brodsky, PC Magazine, 21 June 2026
Definition of fumbling
Verb
  • Large fires in southern France have already scorched thousands of hectares (acres) since last week, disrupting the Tour de France cycling race and stretching firefighting resources.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 13 July 2026
  • Rufus the hawk handles deterring the pigeons from disrupting play by eating grass seed.
    — Nick Pachelli, Time, 11 July 2026
Definition of disrupting
Verb
  • The huge animals knocked bodies to the cobblestones, and stumbling runners caused several pileups during the two-and-a-half-minute run from the pen to the bull ring where bullfighters will kill the bulls later in the day.
    — ABC News, ABC News, 11 July 2026
  • The huge animals knocked down bodies to the cobblestones, and stumbling runners caused several pileups during the 2½-minute run from the pen to the bullring where bullfighters would kill the bulls later in the day.
    — Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles Times, 11 July 2026
Definition of stumbling
Verb
  • Signs paws have already been burned include limping, refusing to walk, licking or chewing feet, darker or damaged pads and visible blisters or redness.
    — Hanna Wickes, Kansas City Star, 9 July 2026
  • But the Carolinas have their own ways of making barbecue finger-licking.
    — Amethyst Ganaway, Bon Appetit Magazine, 1 July 2026
Definition of licking
Verb
  • If caught in dense blowing dust, pull off the road, turn off your lights and keep your foot off the brake.
    — CA Weather Bot, Sacbee.com, 10 July 2026
  • But the state waited until 2003 to raise the shelter allowance, blowing past the court’s original deadline by five years.
    — Spencer Norris, ProPublica, 9 July 2026
Definition of blowing
Verb
  • One of the biggest mistakes students make is confusing a loan approval with an affordability recommendation.
    — Scott White, Forbes.com, 2 July 2026
  • Meta’s new cloud business — selling excess compute capacity to outside customers — is confusing on its face.
    — Liz Hoffman, semafor.com, 2 July 2026
Definition of confusing
Verb
  • In March, Melissa Graybill, 52, watched her mother, who is 69, begin an arduous recovery journey after tripping while getting off a horse.
    — Erica Sloan, Washington Post, 14 July 2026
  • Video of the incident shows Henderson trying to climb back over the advertising barriers, tripping, and landing hard on his wrist.
    — Jon Blistein, Rolling Stone, 6 July 2026
Definition of tripping
Verb
  • Saturday’s match was missing the loud Latin passion and party atmosphere that South American teams’ fans would have brought; the near-constant singing and chanting to a steady pounding drumbeat.
    — Miami Herald, Miami Herald, 12 July 2026
  • The drums began pounding; the rain started to beat down even harder.
    — Lale Arikoglu, Condé Nast Traveler, 10 July 2026
Definition of pounding
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

messing over
messing (up)
messing (with)
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Cite this Entry

“Messing (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/messing%20%28up%29. Accessed 17 Jul. 2026.

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