Adjective

(-)

random; chaotic; incomplete; not thorough, constant, or consistent

Do not make such haphazard changes to the settings; instead, adjust the knobs carefully, a bit at a time.

Adjective

(er)

In a disorderly state; chaotic; disorderly.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Boundary problems , passage=Economics is a messy discipline: too fluid to be a science, too rigorous to be an art. Perhaps it is fitting that economists’ most-used metric, gross domestic product (GDP), is a tangle too. GDP measures the total value of output in an economic territory.}}

(of a person) Prone to causing mess.

(of a situation) Difficult or unpleasant to deal with.