mess up
phrasal verb
messed up; messing up; messes up
informal
: to make a mistake : to do something incorrectly
About halfway into the recipe, I realized that I had messed up, and I had to start over.
—often + onShe's afraid she'll mess up on the test.
I messed up on my first attempt.
Examples of mess up in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
If one of the 11 messes up, the whole thing’s screwing up.
—
Angelique Jackson, Variety, 14 Feb. 2025
GMs miss on lots of draft picks, and coaches mess up in game situations weekly.
—Tim Graham, The Athletic, 14 Feb. 2025
The feature will still mess up summarizing your text messages and emails, though.
—Ars Technica, 27 Jan. 2025
Other times, reports may show the wrong credit limit or mess up your payment history.
—Kim Komando, USA TODAY, 23 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mess up
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Angelique Jackson, Variety, 14 Feb. 2025
GMs miss on lots of draft picks, and coaches mess up in game situations weekly.
—Tim Graham, The Athletic, 14 Feb. 2025
The feature will still mess up summarizing your text messages and emails, though.
—Ars Technica, 27 Jan. 2025
Other times, reports may show the wrong credit limit or mess up your payment history.
—Kim Komando, USA TODAY, 23 Jan. 2025
See All Example Sentences for mess up
Cite this Entry
“Mess up.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/mess%20up. Accessed 28 Feb. 2025.
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