mess with

phrasal verb

messed with; messing with; messes with

informal

: 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.

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.

: 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

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.

Those agents can overprice homes, mess with marketing, or fail to book timely showings. —

Adriane Quinlan, Curbed, 14 Nov. 2024 Modena has, quite sensibly, not messed with the Shamal’s gloriously angular shape too much on the MA-01. —

Bryan Hood, Robb Report, 5 Nov. 2024 Fans are given license to mess with the player diving over the wall. —

Dan Freedman, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2024 Ever since 2008’s Taken opened up a surprisingly durable late-career reinvention for Liam Neeson as a taciturn action star of tough-guy dad thrillers, frequently dispatching lowlifes who mess with his family, it’s become the norm to expect more of the same. —

David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter, 30 Oct. 2024 See all Example Sentences for mess with