{
    "term": "mess",
    "partOfSpeech": "noun",
    "ox3000": true,
    "cefr": "b1",
    "definitions": [
        {
            "senseNumber": 1,
            "definition": "a dirty or untidy state",
            "sensetop": "in a mess",
            "cefr": "b1",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The room was in a mess.",
                    "contextForm": "in a mess"
                },
                {
                    "text": "The kids **made a mess** in the bathroom."
                },
                {
                    "text": "‘**What a mess**!’ she said, surveying the scene after the party."
                },
                {
                    "text": "My hair's a real mess!"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Must you always leave such a mess?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Sorry, this place is a bit of a mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Let's try to sort out the mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Why don't you clean up this disgusting mess?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "They've left the most terrible mess in their bedrooms."
                },
                {
                    "text": "She searched through the mess of papers on her desk."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Soon both fighters were a bloody mess of flying punches."
                },
                {
                    "text": "There was a soggy mess of porridge on the table."
                },
                {
                    "text": "There was a tangled mess of wires under her desk."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["absolute", "complete", "fine"],
                "verb + mess": ["leave", "make", "clean up"],
                "preposition": ["in a mess", "mess of"],
                "phrases": ["make a mess of things"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 2,
            "definition": "a situation that is full of problems, usually because of a lack of organization or because of mistakes that somebody has made",
            "sensetop": "in a mess",
            "labels": "(ironic)",
            "ox3000": true,
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "The economy is in a mess.",
                    "contextForm": "in a mess"
                },
                {
                    "text": "a financial mess"
                },
                {
                    "text": "I feel I've **made a mess of** things."
                },
                {
                    "text": "How did this whole mess start?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "Let's try to sort out the mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "How do we get out of this mess?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "The biggest question is how they got into this mess in the first place."
                },
                {
                    "text": "That’s another fine mess you’ve got us into."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The entire event is a **sorry mess**."
                },
                {
                    "text": "A new managing director has been appointed to clear up the financial mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I got myself into a complete mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I have to try to fix the mess you caused."
                },
                {
                    "text": "I'm in a huge mess. I don't know what to do."
                },
                {
                    "text": "My life's becoming a big mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The whole situation is a giant mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "The plot is an incoherent mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "We found ourselves in a real mess."
                },
                {
                    "text": "Who got us into this mess in the first place?"
                },
                {
                    "text": "You started this entire mess!"
                },
                {
                    "text": "There is still a way out of this economic mess."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["absolute", "complete", "fine"],
                "verb + mess": ["leave", "make", "clean up"],
                "preposition": ["in a mess", "mess of"],
                "phrases": ["make a mess of things"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 3,
            "definition": "a person who is dirty or whose clothes and hair are not tidy",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "You're a mess!"
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["absolute", "complete", "fine"],
                "verb + mess": ["leave", "make", "clean up"],
                "preposition": ["in a mess", "mess of"],
                "phrases": ["make a mess of things"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 4,
            "definition": "a person who has serious problems and is in a bad mental condition",
            "labels": "(informal)",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "When my wife left me I was a total mess."
                }
            ],
            "collocations": {
                "adjective": ["absolute", "complete", "fine"],
                "verb + mess": ["leave", "make", "clean up"],
                "preposition": ["in a mess", "mess of"],
                "phrases": ["make a mess of things"]
            }
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 5,
            "definition": "the excrement (= solid waste matter) of an animal, usually a dog or cat",
            "labels": "(informal)",
            "examples": []
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 6,
            "definition": "a lot of something",
            "sensetop": "a mess of something",
            "labels": "(North American English, informal)",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "There's a mess of fish down there, so get your lines in the water."
                }
            ]
        },
        {
            "senseNumber": 7,
            "definition": "a building or room in which members of the armed forces have their meals",
            "labels": "especially in North American English",
            "examples": [
                {
                    "text": "the officers’ mess"
                }
            ]
        }
    ],
    "pronunciations": {
        "uk": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/mes/",
                "audio": "me/mess/mess__gb_1.mp3"
            }
        ],
        "us": [
            {
                "pronunciation": "/mes/",
                "audio": "me/mess/mess__us_1.mp3"
            }
        ]
    },
    "wordOrigin": "Middle English: from Old French mes ‘portion of food’, from late Latin missum ‘something put on the table’, past participle of mittere ‘send, put’. The original sense was ‘a serving of (semi-liquid) food’, later ‘liquid food for an animal’; this gave rise (early 19th cent.) to the senses ‘unappetizing concoction’ and ‘predicament’, on which senses 1, 3 and 4 are based. In late Middle English the term also denoted any of the small groups into which the company at a banquet was divided (who were served from the same dishes); hence, ‘a group who regularly eat together’ (recorded in military use from the mid 16th cent.)."
}