hot mess

noun

plural hot messes

informal : something or someone that is emphatically a mess: such as

: something in a state of extreme disorder or disarray

His latest outing, to a hot mess of a boutique hotel in New Mexico, is just as full of withering asides and bleeped-out F-bombs.—

TV Guide

: a disorganized, disheveled, or self-destructive person

She's a hard-drinking hot mess who scavenges the streets for castoff furniture and clothing that she spruces up and sometimes sells; how she survives in contemporary Los Angeles is one of the movie's biggest mysteries.—

Sheri Lindenn

also : such a person who is at the same time attractive or sexy

However, Everett actually is a hot mess when she performs. Her stage presence is erotic and chaotic, her big blond body wrapped in something low-cut and sheer. —

Molly Adams

archaic

: a hot dish especially of soft or pulpy food

… there was a stove over which our guides made a hot mess of flour and water which passed for soup.—

Edwin Swift Balch

: a hot mixture of ingredients cooked or eaten together

They were supping or breakfasting together off a hot mess of meat and vegetables, and rose up at our entrance, for the room boasted of a wooden bench and couple of ricketty stools.—

Henry Vizetelly

Examples of hot mess in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web His hot mess of a family includes domineering mother Deliria (Hannah Waddingham), playboy father Shlub (Matt Berry), and eccentric half-siblings Stupendous (Pam Murphy) and Hippocampus (Duncan Trussell). —

Ew Staff, EW.com, 8 Sep. 2023 Meanwhile, Davis is never not going to act the s--- out of something, so for her role as professional hot mess Annalise Keating on HTGAWM, Davis became the first African American to win an Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Emmy in 2015. —

Lester Fabian Brathwaite, EW.com, 8 Mar. 2024 Cate Blanchett, ‘Blue Jasmine’ (2014) Blanchett delivers an enjoyably tragicomic turn in Woody Allen's dramedy as a booze-swilling, Xanax-popping hot mess. —

Brian Truitt, USA TODAY, 4 Mar. 2024 Hot food in the restaurant, hot mess around the dishwasher. —

David J. Neal, Miami Herald, 18 Feb. 2024 This sporadically fun but exhausting hot mess provides 202 minutes of hyperventilating overkill for star Ranbir Kapoor as a tycoon’s favorite son whose anger-management (as well as daddy) issues are off the charts. —

Dennis Harvey, Variety, 2 Dec. 2023 The claustrophobia is palpable and perfectly executed as hot mess express Andri watches his investigation and his personal relationships unravel. —

David Faris, theweek, 14 Jan. 2024 The result is that a spam filter looks at this hot mess of an email and basically gives up. —

Ron Amadeo, Ars Technica, 4 Dec. 2023 Today, a look at the latest hot mess in Washington. —

USA TODAY, 12 Feb. 2024

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'hot mess.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.