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Mess vs Logjam - What's the difference?

mess | logjam |

As nouns the difference between mess and logjam

is that mess is (obsolete) mass; church service or mess can be a disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; a disorder while logjam is an excess of logs being conveyed on a river, so that their motion halts.

As a verb mess

is (label) to take meals with a mess or mess can be (label) to make a mess of.

mess

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) (m), partly from (etyl) . More at (m); see also (m).

Noun

(es)
  • (obsolete) Mass; church service.
  • A quantity of food set on a table at one time; provision of food for a person or party for one meal; also, the food given to an animal at one time.
    • A mess of pottage.
  • * Milton
    • At their savoury dinner set / Of herbs and other country messes .
  • 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.
    • the wardroom mess
  • * 1610 , , IV. iv. 11:
    • But that our feasts / In every mess have folly, and the feeders / Digest it with accustom,
  • A set of four (from the old practice of dividing companies into sets of four at dinner).
    • (Latimer)
  • (US) The milk given by a cow at one milking.
    • Derived terms
    * Eton mess * lose the number of one's mess * mess hall * mess up * Mills Mess
    External links
    *

    Verb

  • (label) To take meals with a mess.
  • (label) To belong to a mess.
  • (label) To eat (with others).
  • (label) To supply with a mess.

    • External links

    *

    Etymology 2

    Perhaps a corruption of (etyl) , compare (muss), or derived from Etymology 1 "mixed foods, as for animals".

    Noun

    (-)
  • A disagreeable mixture or confusion of things; hence, a situation resulting from blundering or from misunderstanding; a disorder.
  • (label) A large quantity or number.
  • (label) Excrement.
    • Quotations
    * (English Citations of "mess")
    Synonyms
    * see also

    Verb

    (es)
  • (label) To make a mess of.
  • (label) To throw into confusion.
  • (label) To interfere.
    • Derived terms
    (terms derived from "mess") * messy * mess around * mess up * mess with

    External links

    *

    References

    *

    Anagrams

    * ----

    logjam

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An excess of logs being conveyed on a river, so that their motion halts.
  • (figuratively) A clog or such jam or mess that halts or greatly delays progress.
    • Efforts to amend the law got sidetracked in an administrative logjam .
    A step forward for the minimum wage increase this afternoon, as the Senate cleared the logjam of the Republican filibuster. [http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/1/30/13150/5672]

    See also

    * bottleneck * * traffic jam * vicious circle