mussedadj.
/mʌst/, U.S. /məst/ colloquial (chiefly U.S.).
Messy, disordered, untidy; rumpled; confused; (of hair) ruffled, tousled. Frequently in mussed-up.
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the world > relative properties > order > disorder > confusion or disorder > untidiness > [adjective]
untidya1375
unred1528
sluttish?1529
untrimmed?1529
untrick1570
untrim1570
shevelled1613
hirsute1621
incompta1628
messy1627
unneat1648
tawdry1672
slattern1680
bunting1759
untrig1821
sloggering1825
slummocking1825
scrambling1826
poucey1829
anyhow1831
mullocky1839
ragtail1846
mussy1859
slubbery1880
unshipshape1883
mussed1888
slummocky1898
ruggy1929
idle1956
1857 E. G. Paige Dow's Patent Serm. 1st Ser. 151 He may behold his admired object, on the morrow,..her hair mussed and mossy.
1858 Harper's Mag. Nov. 789 An author..washing the mussed soul he had worn through all the winter galas of town in the great bath of forest ether.
1865 A. D. Whitney Gayworthys 129 I don't like bran-new things. I want my dress to be mussed a little.
1888 Detroit Free Press (Farmer) Neither of us got two winks of sleep during the night on the car... We reached Chicago in a mussed up condition.
1909 Public Ledger (Philadelphia) 24 June 7/6 (advt.) Lot 3..Some four hundred soiled or mussed waists, in white lawn & lingerie.
a1911 D. G. Phillips Susan Lenox (1917) I. vii. 97 Before the cloudy watermarked mirror she arranged her scarcely mussed hair.
1973 D. Westheimer Going Public ii. 28 Only a little mussed, the kid says! I'm not leaving looking like something the cat dragged in.
1992 N.Y. Times Mag. 26 Apr. 40/4 What I like about the Catholics is that they have this sort of mussed-up human way.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2003; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.1857