Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun mess-up

1 sense of mess-up

Sense 1
ballup, balls-up, cockup, mess-up -- (something badly botched or muddled)
       => mistake, error, fault -- (a wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention; "he made a bad mistake"; "she was quick to point out my errors"; "I could understand his English in spite of his grammatical faults")

Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of verb mess-up

3 senses of mess up

Sense 1
botch, bodge, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub, screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck up -- (make a mess of, destroy or ruin; "I botched the dinner and we had to eat out"; "the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement")
       => fail, go wrong, miscarry -- (be unsuccessful; "Where do today's public schools fail?"; "The attempt to rescue the hostages failed miserably")

Sense 2
ruffle, ruffle up, rumple, mess up -- (disturb the smoothness of; "ruffle the surface of the water")
       => disarrange -- (destroy the arrangement or order of; "My son disarranged the papers on my desk")

Sense 3
mess, mess up -- (make a mess of or create disorder in; "He messed up his room")
       => disorder, disarray -- (bring disorder to)