A verb or noun with a host of phrases, Mess has a wide range of meanings. Old French provided the original word mes to Middle English, meaning "a portion of food." It retained that meaning until the early 19th century, when it became "an unappetizing concoction" and "predicament." A separate meaning has been related to meals in the military since the 16th century: a portion of food or the place where meals are eaten.
A sampling of only a few shades of meaning:
• Dirty or untidy state - "I made a mess of the kitchen."
• Used euphemistically for the excrement of an animal
• A confused or difficult state - "The economy is a mess."
• A portion of mushy or semisolid food.
• Private Smith went to the mess hall for lunch.
Mess
Re: Mess
Don't forget the verb, as admirably applied by Kenneth Grahame in "The Wind in the Willows":
There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
There is nothing - absolutely nothing - half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats.
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- Grand Panjandrum
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Re: Mess
And the famous desert - Eton Mess.
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