messy

1. untidy: 2. producing or causing dirt and untidiness: 3. used to describe a…

Meaning of

messy

in English


messy


adjective


us

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/

ˈmes.i

/


uk

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/

ˈmes.i

/


messy


adjective


(

DIRTY/UNTIDY

)


B1

not

tidy

:


a messy

kitchen


messy

hands

/

hair


His bedroom’s always messy.


not clean


dirty


This shirt is dirty.


filthy


Wash your hands before dinner – they’re filthy!


scruffy


He’s the typical scruffy student.


messy


Ben’s bedroom is always really messy.


grimy


Don’t wipe your grimy hands on that clean towel!


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Eating

spaghetti

can be a messy

business

.


Vicky is a really good

cook

but she’s messy.

She

quickly


became


accustomed

to his messy

ways

.

Her

house

is very messy.

The

children

really

enjoy

messy

play

.

My

hair

is so messy.

How can you

find

anything when the

house

is so messy?


Dirty & untidy


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messy


adjective


(

SITUATION

)


A

war

will be a

long

and messy


business

.


They had a

bitter

, messy

divorce

.


Serious and unpleasant


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Related word

(Definition of

messy

from the

Cambridge Advanced Learner’s Dictionary & Thesaurus


© Cambridge University Press)

messy

| Intermediate English


messy


adjective


us

Your browser doesn’t support HTML5 audio


/

ˈmes·i

/


I

hate

a messy

kitchen

.

A messy

situation

is one that is

confused

and

unpleasant

:


He’s got a messy

personal


life

.

(Definition of

messy

from the

Cambridge Academic Content Dictionary


© Cambridge University Press)

Examples

of


messy

messy


Here’s history happening, and it’s a little

messy

.


Breaking news has always been

messy

and hard, but now we’re all involved.

From

Wired


More examples


Fewer examples


As the skies got busier after the war, they also got messier.


Evolution drives relentlessly forward, leaving behind a

messy

wake.


Kids outgrow their shoes and clothes quickly, and they tend to get them

messy

too.


This could mean more, faster, and messier regulations.


Start by identifying the two or three things that cause you the most stress on a consistent basis — maybe having a

messy

house is one.


But that makes for a

messy

politics, a difficult politics.


Being a person means being unpredictable and

messy

, and the math gets even more complicated when relationships come into the picture.

From

NPR


The books need to be on shelves, not in

messy

stacks on the floor (strike two).


Our

messy

failures evoke a struggle to articulate something important, and although our writerly language has improved, the effort applies to everyone.


The debate over online anonymity, and all the whistleblowers, trolls, anarchists, journalists and political dissidents it enables, is

messy

enough.

From

Wired


Action scenes, including the residential shootout that explodes when police finally corner the bombers, feel appropriately anarchic and

messy

.

These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.

Translations of

messy

in Chinese (Traditional)
髒亂的, 淩亂的,雜亂的, 髒的…


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in Chinese (Simplified)
脏乱的, 凌乱的,杂乱的, 脏的…


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in Spanish
revuelto, desordenado, desordenado/ada [masculine-feminine…


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in Portuguese
revolto, desordenado, bagunçado…


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in more languages

in Japanese
in Turkish
in French
in Catalan
in Arabic
in Czech
in Danish
in Indonesian
in Thai
in Vietnamese
in Polish
in Malay
in German
in Norwegian
in Korean
in Italian
in Russian
散らかった, 不潔な…


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darmadağınık, pis, kirli…


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en désordre, compliqué/-ée, sale…


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brut, embullat…


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فَوْضَوي…


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špinavý…


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beskidt…


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kotor…


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ซึ่งไม่เรียบร้อยและสกปรก…


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bẩn thỉu…


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brudny, zabałaganiony, przykry…


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kotor…


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schmutzig…


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rotete, vanskelig, snusket…


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엉망의…


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in disordine, sporco, (che fa sporcare)…


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грязный, неубранный, неприятный…


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Word of the Day


jazz

a type of modern music originally developed by African-Americans, with a rhythm in which the strong notes often come before the beat. Jazz is usually improvised (= invented as it is played).


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