student asking question

What's "mess with" mean and when's it used?

teacher

Native speaker’s answer

Rebecca

Here, "mess with" is a phrasal verb that means to interfere with something or someone. To stop or interrupt someone or something from what they usually or need to do. It can also mean to meddle or joke with someone or something or to improvise and try something new. So, if something is interrupted by something else, you're joking around and teasing someone, or you're trying to be creative and do something new, you can use "mess with." Ex: The classes were messing with my swimming schedule, so I had to stop swimming for a while. => interruption Ex: I was messing around with the code and found a solution for the bug. => improvising, trying something new Ex: We were just messing with her. We didn't mean what we said. => joking and playing

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