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 + on

She'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

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

On a scale of 1–10, how messed up is Mark going to be after this? I’m tempted to say 10. —

Brian Grubb, Vulture, 7 Feb. 2025 The issue is that the mayor messed up the spelling, which has now gone viral. —

Joel Thayer, Newsweek, 26 Jan. 2025 The venue holds personal meaning for the father of the bride, who has spent too many happy hours attending to his child’s needs to have things messed up now. —

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, 30 Jan. 2025 Regardless of the chant being messed up slightly, Eagles fans are still overtly excited about their team potentially making another Super Bowl. —

Joel Thayer, Newsweek, 26 Jan. 2025 See all Example Sentences for mess up