FluentPlex

mess up

verb
  1. To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss. (transitive) · The afternoon breeze messed up my hair.
  2. To cause a problem with; to introduce an error or mistake in; to make muddled or confused; spoil; ruin. (transitive) · The change messed something up, and it's not working anymore.
  3. To botch, bungle; to perform poorly on. (transitive) · Well, I messed up my solo, but otherwise it was a good concert.
  4. To make a mistake; to do something incorrectly; to perform poorly. (intransitive) · He has a hard time getting started because he's afraid he'll mess up.· She messed up on her final exam.
  5. To cause (another person) to make unwanted mistakes in a given task, usually through distraction or obnoxious behavior. (transitive) · Stop bumping me! You keep messing me up!
  6. To damage; injure. (transitive) · He messed up his elbow at the track meet.
  7. To manhandle; beat up; rough up. (slang, transitive) · Her brother's friends messed him up a little after he cheated on her.
  8. To discombobulate, utterly confuse, or confound psychologically; to throw into a state of mental disarray. (slang, transitive) · That girl totally messed me up, man. I'm not sure who I am anymore.
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Words, meanings, pronunciations and translations from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 4.0); how common each word is from wordfreq. Made into this dictionary by FluentPlex.