Synonyms for mess up
- verb
- noun
Synonyms by meaning
Verb
1. Ball up
ball up, spoil, muck up informal, bungle, botch, blow informal, ruin, corrupt, foil, pollute, contaminate, bobble, mishandle, fumble, bollix, bolix US, bumble, botch up informal, vitiate, bodge, goof up slang, bollix up slang US, bollocks vulgar UK IE
2. Louse up — to cause a problem with; to introduce an error or mistake in; to make muddled or confused; spoil; ruin
Noun
Definitions
- v. 1
To cause a problem with; to introduce an error or mistake in; to make muddled or confused; spoil; ruin.
The change messed something up, and it's not working anymore.
- v. 2
To manhandle; beat up; rough up.
Her brother's friends messed him up a little after he cheated on her.
- v. 3
To make a mess of; to untidy, disorder, soil, or muss.
The afternoon breeze messed up my hair.
- n. 1
A mistake or fiasco; something that has gone wrong.
Related words
- Other spellings
- mess-up messup
Example sentences
- foil Yanni found a new job at an aluminum foil factory.
- bungle The company will never recover after that last bungle.
- botch Tom and Mary hope that they don't botch the job.
- mess If you mess with drugs, you're asking for trouble.
- hash I have steak, eggs, hash browns, toast, and coffee.
By length
- 3 letters
- gum1
- 4 letters
- blow1, mess1, ruin2, foil1, hash1, muff1, flub
- 5 letters
- spoil1, fluff1, botch1, bodge, bolix, misdo
- 6 letters
- fumble2, tumble2, bumble2, ruffle2, bobble2, bungle2, rumple2, bollix
- 7 letters
- corrupt2, pollute2, vitiate3
- 8 letters
- bollocks2
- 9 letters
- mishandle3
- 11 letters
- contaminate4
The small number after each word is its number of syllables (ruin2 = 2 syllables).
In other languages
- Français
- bordéliser
- Italiano
- scombussolare
- Español
- desbaratar
- Deutsch
- durcheinanderbringen