English Dictionary

mess

/mɛs/

noun

(obsolete) Mass; a church service. / (archaic) A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.

The mess of papers on my desk is overwhelming.

意味（1）

(obsolete) Mass; a church service.

意味（2）

(archaic) A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.

a mess of pottage

意味（3）

(collective) A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common, especially military personnel who eat at the same table.

the wardroom mess

意味（4）

A building or room in which mess is eaten.

The police mess had formerly been a maternity home for the wives of the Sultans of the state. Faded and tatty, peeling, floorboards eaten and unpolished, its philoprogenitive glory was a memory only.

意味（5）

A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).

意味（6）

(US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.

意味（7）

(collective) A group of iguanas.

意味（8）

(cooking) A dessert of fruit and cream, similar to a fool.

Eton is renowned for its messes, and strawberry mess is Empress of them all, with raspberry mess as a very good second. It does not at all convey the joys of a mess to say that it consists of iced fruit and cream, and somewhat resembles a fool. It is a thing apart, and should be approached with bated breath and unimpaired capacity.