oily mess
1
3.7
- noun
:
desastre aceitoso
- After the car broke down, the mechanic had to clean up the oily mess underneath it.
Examples
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The children got into the kitchen and left an oily mess on the floor after cooking.
-
Oily mess in San Francisco Bay could have been prevented
Blog text (2) -
The South Street Seaport Museum flooded up to five feet in its lobby, and not just with water but with an oily mess.
Blog text (11) -
A spilled container of cooking oil created an oily mess that took hours to clean.
Synonyms
∞
1.0
A slippery thick liquid that does not mix with water used for machines, fuel, or cooking
127
1.8
A thick oily material used to make engine parts move smoothly
59
3.0
A thick sticky substance that is soft and wet
30
4.8
A thick, wet, muddy substance that comes from dirty water
15
4.6
Thick sticky stuff that is dirty or unpleasant
10
7.5
A thick sticky substance that is often messy
3
9.9
A sticky, greasy dirt that is hard to remove
1
5.4
A thick glue-like substance that clings to things and makes a mess
A sticky, unpleasant substance that stays on a surface after use
A sticky, greasy film that stays on a surface after something melts or someone puts it on
A wet, slippery material that feels thick and makes things slide
How Oily
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'a dirty or greasy substance that is messy or hard to clean' is directly and transparently built from 'oily' (greasy) + 'mess' (a dirty or disorderly thing), so a B1 learner knowing both words can infer the MWE. This simple adjective+noun composition is a regular, cross-linguistically common pattern and follows straightforward English semantics.
Etymology
The phrase oily mess comes from the simple image of oil spreading and making things dirty. People saw the oily liquid stick and look shiny, leaving a mess that is slippery and hard to clean, so the phrase now means 'a dirty or greasy substance that is messy or difficult to clean up'.