sticky mess
1
5.5
- noun
- Informal
:
situación complicada
- When they showed up, the bag holding the food leaked all over our front step, hallway, and into the kitchen (leaving the sticky mess for us to clean up).
Examples
-
The children created a sticky mess with glue and glitter during their art project.
-
After the party, the floor was covered in a sticky mess from spilled drinks and crumbs.
-
Cleaning up the sticky mess left by the burst piñata took longer than expected.
Synonyms
25
7.9
A difficult situation that is hard to escape or solve
14
6.7
In trouble and needing help to fix a problem
9
1.6
Something that is untidy and not in order
4
3.7
A difficult situation that is hard to deal with
2
8.4
A very large, messy situation that is hard to fix
A difficult problem with no easy solution
A difficult problem that is hard to solve
Not able to move forward because of a messy, difficult situation
A confused, messy situation when plans go wrong
How Difficult
∞
1.0
∞
3.1
- Informal
1
5.5
∞
1.2
4
3.7
6
3.2
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a difficult or unpleasant situation' is directly derivable from combining 'sticky' (difficult to handle/adhesive) with 'mess' (a confused or disordered state): a mess that is 'sticky' naturally suggests a situation that is hard to resolve. This compositional modifier+noun pattern and the metaphoric extension of 'sticky' to mean troublesome are common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words can readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Sticky mess may come from the picture of something covered in glue or mud that you cannot easily pull apart or clean. The word sticky shows it holds things fast and mess shows it is a problem, so it means 'a difficult or unpleasant situation that is hard to resolve'.