messy

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See also: Messy

English

Etymology

From mess +‎ -y.

Pronunciation

Adjective

messy (comparative messier, superlative messiest)

  1. (of a place, situation, person, etc) In a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly.
    a messy office
    Jim ran his fingers through his messy brown hair.
    • 2013 August 3, “Boundary problems”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:
      Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory.
  2. (of a person) Prone to causing mess.
    He is the messiest person I've ever met.
  3. (of a situation) Difficult or unpleasant to deal with.
    a messy divorce

Synonyms

(in a disorderly state): untidy, chaotic, disorderly, cluttered

Antonyms

Derived terms

Descendants

  • German: Messie

Translations

Further reading

Anagrams

Middle English

Noun

messy

  1. Alternative form of messe