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
City building projects messed up the roads into POP.
—
Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2025
The pair called the merger a train wreck and blamed it for messing up the series.
—Taijuan Moorman, USA Today, 4 July 2025
The French press method of making coffee is straightforward, cost-effective, easy to do, and hard to mess up.
—Tyler Shane, Wired News, 30 June 2025
There’s so many different ways to mess up a sequel.
—Katcy Stephan, Variety, 29 June 2025
See All Example Sentences for mess up
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Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2025
The pair called the merger a train wreck and blamed it for messing up the series.
—Taijuan Moorman, USA Today, 4 July 2025
The French press method of making coffee is straightforward, cost-effective, easy to do, and hard to mess up.
—Tyler Shane, Wired News, 30 June 2025
There’s so many different ways to mess up a sequel.
—Katcy Stephan, Variety, 29 June 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 18 Jul. 2025.
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