"mess about" meaning in All languages combined

See mess about on Wiktionary

Verb [English]

Forms: messes about [present, singular, third-person], messing about [participle, present], messed about [participle, past], messed about [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} mess about (third-person singular simple present messes about, present participle messing about, simple past and past participle messed about)
  1. (intransitive) To misbehave Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-mess_about-en-verb-7HoVO2o3 Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, English phrasal verbs formed with "about", Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries Disambiguation of English entries with incorrect language header: 61 33 6 Disambiguation of English phrasal verbs formed with "about": 63 28 9 Disambiguation of Pages with 1 entry: 62 32 6 Disambiguation of Pages with entries: 68 27 5
  2. (intransitive) To be in a casual non-committal relationship Tags: intransitive
    Sense id: en-mess_about-en-verb-D5EhntS1
  3. (transitive) To play with; to toy with; to waste the time of (a person). Tags: transitive Synonyms (all senses): mess around Derived forms: messer-abouter
    Sense id: en-mess_about-en-verb-ckFi0nmR Disambiguation of 'all senses': 40 8 52

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "messes about",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "messing about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "messed about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "messed about",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "mess about (third-person singular simple present messes about, present participle messing about, simple past and past participle messed about)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "61 33 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "63 28 9",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"about\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "62 32 6",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        },
        {
          "_dis": "68 27 5",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Kids! Stop messing about and do your work!",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To misbehave"
      ],
      "id": "en-mess_about-en-verb-7HoVO2o3",
      "links": [
        [
          "misbehave",
          "misbehave"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To misbehave"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Anna and I are just messing about; this isn't going to last.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in a casual non-committal relationship"
      ],
      "id": "en-mess_about-en-verb-D5EhntS1",
      "links": [
        [
          "casual",
          "casual"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To be in a casual non-committal relationship"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "0 0 100",
          "word": "messer-abouter"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Stop messing me about and give me a straight answer!",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To play with; to toy with; to waste the time of (a person)."
      ],
      "id": "en-mess_about-en-verb-ckFi0nmR",
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To play with; to toy with; to waste the time of (a person)."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "_dis1": "40 8 52",
          "sense": "all senses",
          "word": "mess around"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "mess about"
}
{
  "categories": [
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English phrasal verbs",
    "English phrasal verbs formed with \"about\"",
    "English verbs",
    "Pages with 1 entry",
    "Pages with entries"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "messer-abouter"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "messes about",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "messing about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "messed about",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "messed about",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "mess about (third-person singular simple present messes about, present participle messing about, simple past and past participle messed about)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Kids! Stop messing about and do your work!",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To misbehave"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "misbehave",
          "misbehave"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To misbehave"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English terms with usage examples"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Anna and I are just messing about; this isn't going to last.",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To be in a casual non-committal relationship"
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "casual",
          "casual"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive) To be in a casual non-committal relationship"
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English transitive verbs"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Stop messing me about and give me a straight answer!",
          "type": "example"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To play with; to toy with; to waste the time of (a person)."
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(transitive) To play with; to toy with; to waste the time of (a person)."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "transitive"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "sense": "all senses",
      "word": "mess around"
    }
  ],
  "word": "mess about"
}

Download raw JSONL data for mess about meaning in All languages combined (1.9kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.