Become involved in something damaging or dangerous
Meanings
- Become involved in something damaging or dangerous (inseparable, International English)
- Annoy, bother (inseparable, International English)
- improve, usually unsuccessfully (inseparable, International English)
Examples
- Don't MESS WITH the controls on that machine or you might break it.
- I've been MESSING WITH this printer for an hour and it still won't work.
- You shouldn't MESS WITH things you don't understand.
- He decided to MESS WITH the settings to see if he could improve the performance.