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• n  a state of confusion and disorderliness
  the house was a mess
• n  informal terms for a difficult situation
• n  soft semiliquid food
  a mess of porridge
• n  a meal eaten in a mess hall by service personnel
• n  a (large) military dining room where service personnel eat or relax
• n  (often followed by `of') a large number or amount or extent
• v  eat in a mess hall
• v  make a mess of or create disorder in
  He messed up his room

• Abrahamson, a scholar of organizational behavior who admits to being a bit of a mess, says the costs of maintaining order are often overlooked.
• Becoming a real mess? When was it ever NOT a real mess? I think we should withdraw, and we should bribe warlords to keep them in line.
• We are not cleaning up our own mess.

• messiness
• muss
• mussiness
• fix
• hole
• jam
• muddle
• pickle
• kettle of fish
• mess hall
• batch
• deal
• flock
• good deal
• great deal
• hatful
• heap
• lot
• mass
• mickle
• mint
• mountain
• muckle
• passel
• peck
• pile
• plenty
• pot
• quite a little
• raft
• sight
• slew
• spate
• stack
• tidy sum
• wad
• mess up

News & Articles

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• Semi Rollover in Salt Lake County Leaves Mess on Roadway
  (KUTV) A semi rollover in Salt Lake County slowed traffic during rush hour and left a mess on the roadway. The tanker was hauling asphalt slurry seal when the driver lost control, causing the truck to roll onto its side around 5:30pm Monday. Some of the slurry leaked onto I-215 near 4700 South. ...
  June 18, 2013 - KUTV Salt Lake City
• Walter Mess | WW II American spy, 98
  Walter Mess, 98, an American spy who captained a speedboat that ferried agents to and from secret missions in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II, died May 26 in Alexandria, Va. The cause was end-stage chronic renal failure, said his son, Walter Mess Jr.
  June 17, 2013 - Philly.com
• Walter Mess, ‘taxi driver’ of World War II spies
  Walter Mess, an American spy who captained a speedboat that ferried agents to and from secret missions in the China-Burma-India theater of World War II, died May 26 in Alexandria, Va. He was 98.        
  June 16, 2013 - Boston Globe

Quotes

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• Barack Obama in The Associated Press
  This is a choice between the policies that led us into the mess or the policies that are leading us out of the mess,Obama said at a rally for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. "It's a choice between falling backward and moving forward."