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
This is where a lot of small-business owners mess up.
—
Marek Niedzwiedz, Forbes.com, 15 July 2025
There’s a hell of a lot of information in this first episode, but the script prevents it from feeling overwhelming or from messing up the pacing with too much exposition.
—Rafael Motamayor, Vulture, 11 July 2025
The zanier time-traveling meta sequel ups his hallmark lampooning game, while also methodically redefining how funny and completely messed up these flicks could be.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 10 July 2025
City building projects messed up the roads into POP.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 July 2025
See All Example Sentences for mess up
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Marek Niedzwiedz, Forbes.com, 15 July 2025
There’s a hell of a lot of information in this first episode, but the script prevents it from feeling overwhelming or from messing up the pacing with too much exposition.
—Rafael Motamayor, Vulture, 11 July 2025
The zanier time-traveling meta sequel ups his hallmark lampooning game, while also methodically redefining how funny and completely messed up these flicks could be.
—Brian Truitt, USA Today, 10 July 2025
City building projects messed up the roads into POP.
—Los Angeles Times, 4 July 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 21 Jul. 2025.
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