muss
/mʌs
/informal, chiefly North American
verb [with object]
Make (someone’s hair or clothes) untidy or messy: the wind was mussing up his hair...
- Her hair was mussed and falling over her eyes, her clothes wrinkled and disheveled.
- You can almost feel the energy blowing off the screen, mussing your hair and plastering a big smile onto your face.
- ‘Oh, that's okay,’ Wendy said, mussing Erin's hair affectionately.
Synonyms
ruffle, tousle, dishevel, rumple, mess up, make a mess of, disarrange, make untidy, tumble, put out of place, disorder
noun [usually in singular]
A state of disorder: no fuss, no muss—nothing left behind except a few little specks of dust...
- No muss, no fuss, and no swearing at my sewing machine while I try to figure out what I'm doing, and then cursing at my complete inability to sew a straight line.
- No muss, no fuss - just tons of free advertising!
- Convenience is their strong suit and in general they are fine when time is an issue and you want a quick fire without all the muss and fuss of natural firewood.
Derivatives
mussy
/ adjective ...- How he acts, how he sees you and what's important to him matter just as much as his mussy hair or outward charms.
- I buried my face in your fine mussy hair and my heart burst with overwhelming love.
- His red-and-white hair reminded her of peppermint, but it was so mussy she instantly dismissed it, taking in at the same time his leather pants.
Origin
Mid 19th century (also as a noun in the sense 'disturbance or row'): apparently a variant of mess.