mess with

phrasal verb

messed with; messing with; messes with

informal

1

: to cause trouble for (someone) : to deal with (someone) in a way that may cause anger or violence

I wouldn't want to mess with him.

You'd better not be messing with me.

2

chiefly US : to deal with or be involved with (something that causes or that could cause trouble)

The company doesn't want to mess with small distributors.

He doesn't want to mess with cocaine anymore.

3

: to handle or play with (something) in a careless way : to mess around with (something)

Don't mess with the camera.

Examples of mess with in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

The observatory will be a game-changer in the hunt for Planet 9, agrees Scott Sheppard of Carnegie Science, one of the researchers who first suggested that a big planet could be the culprit that was messing with the orbits of some small solar system bodies. —Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR, 9 Apr. 2025

Grapefruit is definitely the most prominent example, but some other types of citrus fruit can mess with meds in your body as well, according to Dr. Guo. —Caroline Tien, SELF, 7 Apr. 2025

Viewers may consider the possibility that Chloe is messing with Saxon’s hazy memory and Lochlan did not, in fact, touch Saxon. —Eliana Dockterman, TIME, 24 Mar. 2025

Wade began by saying the last thing anyone should be doing is messing with James’ preferred snack of choice. —Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 27 Mar. 2025