mess

Etymology 1

Perhaps a corruption of Middle English mesh (“mash”), compare muss, or derived from Etymology 2 "mixed foods, as for animals".

noun

1. A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding.
   No, look, I know that the place looks like a bit of a mess but it's actually a very delicate ecosystem. Everything is connected. It's like the rainforest. You change one thing, even the tiniest bit, and the whooole rainforest dies. You don't want the rainforest to die, do ya? 2006 Feb. 3, Graham Linehan, The IT Crowd, Season 1, Episode 4
   He made a mess of it.
   My bedroom is such a mess; I need to tidy up.
2. (colloquial) A large quantity or number.
   My boss dumped a whole mess of projects on my desk today.
   She brought back a mess of fish to fix for supper.
3. (euphemistic) Excrement.
   There was dog mess all along the street.
   Parked under a tree, my car was soon covered in birds' mess.
4. (figurative) A person in a state of (especially emotional) turmoil or disarray; an emotional wreck.
   Between the pain and the depression, I'm a mess.
   He's been a mess and a half ever since you excommunicated him.

verb

1. (transitive, often used with "up") To make untidy or dirty.
   1. To make soiled by defecating.
      It seems like all you do is cry, eat, and mess your diapers! March 12 2000, Tom Armstrong, Marvin (comic)
   2. To make soiled by ejaculating.
2. (transitive, often used with "up") To throw into disorder or to ruin.
   But it wasn't right to be messing another man's sleep with tidal waves that didn't belong to the other man. 1905, Arthur Colton, The Belted Seas, page 76
3. (intransitive) To interfere.
   This doesn't concern you. Don't mess.
4. (used with "with") To screw around with, to bother, to be annoying to.
   Stop messing with me!

Etymology 2

From Middle English mes, partly from Old English mēse, mēose (“table”); and partly from Old French mes, Late Latin missum, from mittō (“to put, place (e.g. on the table)”). See mission, and compare Mass (“religious service”).

noun

1. (obsolete) Mass; a church service.
2. (archaic) A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.
   c. 1555, Hugh Latimer, letter to one in prison for the profession of the Gospel a mess of pottage
   [Curry] consists of meat, fish, fruit, or vegetables, cooked with a quantity of bruised spices and turmeric […]; and a little of this gives a flavour to a large mess of rice. 1903, Henry Yule, Arthur Burnell, Hobson-Jobson
3. (collective) A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table.
   the wardroom mess
4. A building or room in which mess is eaten.
   The police mess had formerly been a maternity home for the wives of the Sultans of the state. Faded and tatty, peeling, floorboards eaten and unpolished, its philoprogenitive glory was a memory only. 1956, Anthony Burgess, Time for a Tiger (The Malayan Trilogy), published 1972, page 20
5. A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
6. (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
7. (collective) A group of iguanas.
8. (cooking) A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool.
   Eton is renowned for its "messes," and "strawberry mess" is Empress of them all, with raspberry mess as a very good second. It does not at all convey the joys of a "mess" to say that it consists of iced fruit and cream, and somewhat resembles a "fool." It is a thing apart, and should be approached with bated breath and unimpaired capacity. 1913, Pearson's Magazine, volume 36, part 2, page 373
   "I'll stand you both strawberry mess." It was perfectly impossible for David not to feel elated at sitting down to strawberry-mess with two members of the eleven, in the full light of day, and in sight of the school generally […] 1916, Edward Frederic Benson, David Blaize, page 284
   Eton mess, for example, which is another name for strawberry fool, links the name of a famous public school with disorder or the army slang for a meal, … One friend remembered a banana mess of mashed banana with two scoops of ice cream and loads of cream, and thought the strawberry version something that might be served at the 4th June College picnic, … 2014, Lindsey Bareham, Just One Pot
   Similar desserts [to Eton Mess] include Lancing Mess (made with bananas), served at Lancing College in Sussex, and Clare College Mush[…] 2015, Darra Goldstein, Sidney Mintz, Michael Krondl, Laura Mason, The Oxford Companion to Sugar and Sweets, Oxford University Press, USA, page 243
   One Old Etonian rages that at school the dessert was simply called 'strawberry mess' and was very popular in the tuck shop. It is only outside Eton that the school's name has been added. A similar 'banana mess' is credited to School in Sussex, […] 2020, Nigel Napier-Andrews, Gentleman's Portion: The Cookbook

verb

1. (intransitive) To take meals with a mess.
2. (intransitive) To belong to a mess.
3. (intransitive) To eat (with others).
   Resolved 18. That no Guide or Interpreter whether at the Factory Depot or Inland be permitted to mess with Commissioned Gentlemen or Clerks in charge of Posts; but while at the Depot they will be allowed per Week 4 days ordinary rations... 1836, George Simpson & al., HBC Standing Rules and Regulations, §18
   I mess with the wardroom officers.
4. (transitive) To supply with a mess.