Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. excrement, usu. canine or feline; thus make a mess, to excrete on a carpet, floor or similar unsuitable place.

1905		J. Wright EDD IV 95/2: Mess [...] Ordure, the quantity of dung excreted at one time.
1928		Kipling ‘The Woman in His Life’ Limits and Renewals (1932) 50: It’s [i.e. a dog] made a mess in the corner.
1950		A.B. Guthrie Way West 48: God yes, shoot the dogs. They weren’t no real good to nobody. Just made more mess to step in.
1959		I. & P. Opie Lore and Lang. of Schoolchildren (1977) 279: The dog has made a mess on the carpet.
1966		(con. 1954) J. McGrath Events While Guarding the Bofors Gun II ii: Youre just making a mess in your trousers in case they find out about you.
1968		J. Hersey Algiers Motel Incident 369: My car [...] had bird mess and all types of stuff all over it.
1971		E. Taylor Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont (1982) 141: Side-stepping from a dog’s mess, she stumbled a little.
1983		S. Gee Never in My Lifetime in Best Radio Plays (1984) 60: Dotting about in front gardens in the lupins and the dog mess.
1999		Guardian Weekend 18 Sept. 76: Sue trod some dog’s mess into the studio.
2001		A. Bennett diary in Untold Stories (2006) 298: It’s a dog owner whose social responsibility stretches to picking up the mess but not to putting it in their own bin.

2. (US milit./prison) food.

1754		E. Burt Letters from Scotland I 130: I was speaking of Provisions in this Town [...] There are two or three People, not far from the Town, who, having an Eye to our Mess, employ themselves now and then to fattening Fowls, and sometimes a Turkey, a Lamb etc.
1865		Moulton letter in Drickamer Fort Lyon to Harper’s Ferry (1987) 237: I think I am about as well off here with the ‘mess,’ pork for breakfast with pork and beans for dinner and cold beans for supper.
1917		A.C. Huber Diary of a Doughboy 🌐 We reached Afton, Oklahoma at dusk and were eating ‘mess’ as we stopped there for a few moments.
1926		J. Tully Jarnegan (1928) 31: The food was known as ‘mess’.

3. (US black) nonsense, rubbish; interference.

1921		Z.N. Hurston John Redding Goes to Sea (1995) 927: Ain’t Ah done tol’ you forty times not tuh tahk dat lowlife mess in front of mah boy?
1935		Z.N. Hurston Mules and Men (1995) 141: Aw, you tryin’ to bully de game, but if you ain’t prepared to back yo’ crap wid hot lead, don’t bring de mess up. [Ibid.] 77: Oh lemme spread my mess. Dis is Will Richardson doin’ dis lyin’.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 97: I couldn’t dig this mess, but I kept my mouth shut.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 126: He [...] takes no jive, no mess.
1978		W.D. Myers It Ain’t All for Nothin 94: What’s what supposed to mean?’ ‘That mess about having parents,’ he said.
1984		W.D. Myers Motown and Didi 56: ‘I told y’all to get on out of here with that mess [...] I got payin’ customers in here’.
1996		W.D. Myers Slam! 51: Mr. Tate talking all that mess about how my life is going to get messed up.
2002		D.H. Sterry Chicken (2003) 23: Ah hope to God you don’t try that mess in public, cuz that’s a good way to git yourself bitchslapped, son.
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 14: Carmetta hung back and [...] didn’t mess with me much. If I let her be, she’d do the same, but if I gave her any mess at all, she’d lose it.

4. (orig. US) an objectionable, ineffectual or stupid person.

1928		M. West Pleasure Man (1997) II ii: I just laid him out stinkin’, the shopworn mess.
1944		C. Himes ‘My But the Rats Are Terrible’ in Coll. Stories 327: ‘You and Chapman are a mess. You just want to make Eberhard drunk’.
1954		(con. 1920s–30s) J.O. Killens Youngblood (1956) 414: Old Youngblood’s a mess [...] Trying to make time with the lady already.
1965		K. Marlowe Mr Madam (1967) 260: He was a mess! Just some nellie old ribbon counter clerk.
1979		B. Gutcheon New Girls (1982) 168: That mess doesn’t have any nerves. She’s so crazy to be in on everything, she says ‘yes’ no matter what you ask her.
1982		P. Theroux London Embassy 208: I used to be a mess.

5. (US black) something good or praiseworthy, if slightly confusing or disturbing [SE mess, a state of confusion or muddle].

1936		Lil Hardin Armstrong ‘It’s Murder’ 🎵 Now, all you gals, come gather ’round, stop ravin’ about your men! / And let me tell you how sweet mine is, though he’s a mess of sin.
1944		Cab Calloway New Hepsters Dict. in Calloway (1976) 258: mess (n.): something good. Ex., ‘That last drink was a mess.’.
1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 105: You see I’m out West, knocking my mess, busting my vest on the simple chicks and wealthy hicks.
1972		D. Jenkins Semi-Tough 230: This here’s some kind of mess, baby.

6. (US black) unspecified ‘stuff’ in general.

1944		D. Burley Orig. Hbk of Harlem Jive 65: Well, the head chick pulls a Rudolph Hess, and hikes for some mess.
1956		R. Ellison ‘A Coupla Scalped Indians’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 268: We gotta stop cussing and playing the dozens if we’re going to be boy scouts. Those white boys don’t play that mess.
1971		(con. 1960s) D. Wells Night People 95: Children a couple of years old can talk more mess than I would have dreamed of when I was ten. Talk about being down!
1980		J.L. Gwaltney Drylongso 221: My cousin is one of them Moozlums [...] My susta’s oldest boy is into that mess.
1988		W.D. Myers Scorpions 163: ‘He had that reading and mess down pat and he didn’t run no games’.
2001		Source Aug. 129: Man, that mess was fast!

7. semen.

1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 30: mess (n.): Ejaculated semen which has been discharged by accident during heavy love play and messes up one’s clothing and/or body.
1997		Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 87 Dec. n.p.: mess n. Semen; gunk; cock hockle. See also lose your mess.

8. (US campus) male or female genitalia.

1987

Eble Campus Sl. Spring.

9. (Irish) foolish behaviour, fun.

1991		R. Doyle Van (1998) 578: They were really excited and they ran around the corner to Mulligans, pushing each other for the mess.
1997		C. McPherson The Weir 23: Don’t be acting the mess.