What's the difference between mess and spat?

Mess


Definition:

  • (n.) Mass; church service.
  • (n.) A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; as, a mess of pottage; also, the food given to a beast at one time.
  • (n.) A number of persons who eat together, and for whom food is prepared in common; especially, persons in the military or naval service who eat at the same table; as, the wardroom mess.
  • (n.) A set of four; -- from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner.
  • (n.) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
  • (n.) A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; as, he made a mess of it.
  • (v. i.) To take meals with a mess; to belong to a mess; to eat (with others); as, I mess with the wardroom officers.
  • (v. t.) To supply with a mess.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) They were preceded by the publication of The Success and Failure of Picasso (1965) and Art and Revolution: Ernst Neizvestny and the Role of the Artist in the USSR (1969); in one, he made a hopeless mess of Picasso’s later career, though he was not alone in this; in the other, he elevated a brave dissident artist beyond his talents.
  • (2) And that's why I was the first G20 finance minister to introduce a permanent tax on banks – because it's fair that they help clear up the mess they did so much to create.
  • (3) We need to stop making excuses for them: But it is up to the state to close the loopholes Yes, the state must work continually to tighten and simplify the tax regime, which is a deliberate mess keeping an entire industry of accounting firms and tax lawyers fed.
  • (4) Of course, amid this mess some free schools are doing marvellously.
  • (5) The first UK comedy show I ever performed was a total mess.
  • (6) The local inanimate environment, including mess hut, sleeping huts and sleeping bags used on expeditions, was searched for contamination by S. aureus but none was detected.
  • (7) Some say Film Socialism is an eccentric masterpiece ; others that it's an eccentric mess.
  • (8) They had a good threat up top with the two lads up front, who messed us around all day long to be honest.
  • (9) Clubs got into a mess partly because rich people, who knew nothing about football, put money in - and they got ripped off."
  • (10) "Sorry to leave it in such a mess, old cock", was the parting shot from the Conservative chancellor.
  • (11) My weight went down and my house was a bit of a mess.
  • (12) Friends describe him, kindly, as a mess: invariably tieless, usually unshaven and "sweaty, because he always goes round on his bike".
  • (13) It had promised its national deficit would drop from 9.5% of GDP to 6%, but turned in an 8.5% deficit that made it the laughing stock of austerity Europe – and left Rajoy's new government having to clean up the mess, which also includes 24% unemployment and a recession that will shrink the economy by 1.7%.
  • (14) But it's not OK to mess up a movie, it's not OK to do that just so you can improve as an actor.
  • (15) And to put us in a situation where we are only ‘patriotic’ and only ‘heard’ if we actively take it upon ourselves to fight ‘terrorism’, as if we are responsible for these horrible acts, or by sending us to wars killing other Muslims, is also a problematic discourse.” While on guard near the Iraqi city of Baqubah in 2004, the 27-year-old Humayun Khan ran towards a suicide bomb vehicle that was headed in the direction of a mess hall where hundreds of servicemen were eating.
  • (16) But they just didn’t know how to manage the situation.” Facebook Twitter Pinterest Children and adults in the mess at the detention centre Police would book an appointment to interview a child about a serious allegation then fail to show up, Rose said.
  • (17) Their expertise led to this mess, and would be a hindrance, not a help, in cleaning it up.
  • (18) What a complete mess - a miscued shot, scuffed clearance, and uncontrolled toe-punt as he fell - but a decisive mess all the same."
  • (19) But Hancock said: "Their fiscal policy is in a mess.
  • (20) "The only answer to the mess we are in is social uprising and the end of all these barbaric measures."

Spat


Definition:

  • () imp. of Spit.
  • (n.) A young oyster or other bivalve mollusk, both before and after it first becomes adherent, or such young, collectively.
  • (v. i. & t.) To emit spawn; to emit, as spawn.
  • (n.) A light blow with something flat.
  • (n.) Hence, a petty combat, esp. a verbal one; a little quarrel, dispute, or dissension.
  • (v. i.) To dispute.
  • (v. t.) To slap, as with the open hand; to clap together; as the hands.
  • () of Spit

Example Sentences:

  • (1) But the Franco-British spat sparked by Dave's rejection of Angela and Nicolas's cunning plan to save the euro has been given wings by news the US credit agencies may soon strip France of its triple-A rating and is coming along very nicely, thank you. "
  • (2) If wide notice is taken of a current spat over what we can read about Shakespeare’s sexuality into the sonnets in the correspondence columns of the Times Literary Supplement, Sonnet 20 may be a future favourite at civil unions.
  • (3) He wanted to stay on longer than the traditional retirement age but became involved in a nasty spat with the then-chairman, Peter Sutherland.
  • (4) He’s spat on and has wee thrown at him.” Rutherford is also concerned about the governance of the sport.
  • (5) Venom entered the eyes of 9 patients spat at by the spitting cobra, Naja nigricollis.
  • (6) The British parliament’s vote against airstrikes has long been cited by Obama and others as a causal factor but Kerry made the link explicit just a week after a diplomatic spat with the UK’s prime minister, Theresa May, over a United Nations resolution that condemned Israel.
  • (7) The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, has attempted to seize the initiative in the bitter spat on energy prices by pledging a 20-month freeze .
  • (8) She had been sworn at and spat on – anything to force the expression they wanted on to her face.
  • (9) Some said they saw stones; others said they had been spat at.
  • (10) The England winger has been training with the under-21s for the past two and a half months after being frozen out by Mauricio Pochettino in the wake of his public spat with Nathan Gardiner, Tottenham’s fitness coach, following a win against Aston Villa in November.
  • (11) By the time the latest spat came before the FCC, Karr argues, net activists had sharpened their tactics and raised their game.
  • (12) Still alive, he was then surrounded by people who cursed and spat at him, kicked him in the head and tried to hit him with a chair.
  • (13) The Greece midfielder Giannis Maniatis was so enraged after a training ground spat that he booked a himself on a flight back to Athens before being persuaded not to walk out on Fernando Santos’s squad.
  • (14) Mariano Rajoy said he did not want the dispute to "go further", after a spat about fishing escalated into a full-blown diplomatic row with Britain.
  • (15) They are saying she needs to realise that she needs to build allies.” The Tory source spoke out after Kenneth Clarke blew into the open a spat between the Conservative leadership and the home secretary’s team after two of May’s special advisers declined to take part in telephone canvassing in the recent Rochester and Strood byelection.
  • (16) It is understood Cameron and the Lib Dem leader have agreed to cool the coalition tensions that have boiled over into public spats – and there were signs yesterday that was having some effect after it was clear that Labour was making capital from the dispute.
  • (17) Padoan said the US's budget spat posed significant threats to the US and the global economy but said that Europe presented a larger challenge.
  • (18) However, after several years of improving relations and increasing trade, China and Japan have much to lose from a prolonged deterioration in ties, and will be wary of letting the spat get out of hand.
  • (19) Ahmadinejad has been drawn into a bruising power struggle with the conservatives, many of them his former supporters, and has mounted serious challenges to Khamenei, such as engaging in public spats with top-level officials.
  • (20) Former Netanyahu aide lambasts US ambassador in heated spat Read more “These provocative acts are bound to increase the growth of settler populations, further heighten tensions and undermine any prospects for a political road ahead,” Ban told a United Nations security council meeting on the Middle East.