hot mess
nounDefinition of hot mess
1
informal
: something or someone that is emphatically a mess: such as
a
: something in a state of extreme disorder or disarray
… I'd started recording with studio musicians and it sounded terrible, like I was just trying to re-create these old ballads. It was a hot mess. I realized that if I kept working on my own, I was going to come up with some cornball record that I'd never buy.— Scarlett Johansson, quoted in Spin, May 2008
b
: a disorganized, disheveled, or self-destructive person
She's a hard-drinking hot mess who scavenges the streets for castoff furniture and clothing that she spruces up and sometimes sells; how she survives in contemporary Los Angeles is one of the movie's biggest mysteries.— Sheri Lindenn, Los Angeles Times, 7 Nov. 2014
also
: such a person who is at the same time attractive or sexy
… Everett actually is a hot mess when she performs. Her stage presence is erotic and chaotic, her big blond body wrapped in something low-cut and sheer. She'll spit a drink at an audience, rub her tits in someone's face, and/or pour wax on her chest … — Molly Adams, Chicago Reader, 4 Sept. 2014
2 archaic
a
: a hot dish especially of soft or pulpy food
… there was a stove over which our guides made a hot mess of flour and water which passed for soup.— Edwin Swift Balch, Appalachia, 1898
b
: a hot mixture of ingredients cooked or eaten together
A.G. Gilbert's plan is to “Throw all waste of the kitchen, in the shape of meat scraps, pieces of bread, uneaten vegetables, etc., into a pot; heat up in the morning, till nearly boiling, and then mix bran, shorts, or whatever is most abundant or cheap, with the hot mess, dusting in a small quantity of red pepper before mixing. Let the mixture stand for a few minutes, until the meal is nearly cooked.”— Franklane L. Sewell and Ida E. Tilson, The Poultry Herald Manual: A Guide to Successful Poultry Keeping, 1898
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