dog's dinner

plural dogs' dinners

1. AustraliaIrelandNew ZealandUKslangA complete mess.

   to make a dog's dinner (of)

   4 more examples

   The Polizei had made a dog's dinner of this. Vera would have done better, no doubt of it. It now remained to be seen whether the Law would do better.

   1986, Nicolas Freeling, Cold Iron

   She must look like a real dog's dinner. No wonder he'd been looking over her head to the girl who took the coats.

   1997, Norma Harrs, Where Dreams Have Gone

   Just think; without that Mrs Pankhurst and her wrecking crew jumping under racehorses (phwooar!) and chaining themselves to railings (kinky!), these young women would be out getting an education and respecting their own sexuality, not getting themselves up like dog’s dinners and being the passive playthings of men.

   2004 March 6, Julie Burchill, “Welcome to the world of the Stepford Sluts”, in Times Online, retrieved 29 Nov 2010

   The folio text is unevenly spaced (the compositor made a dog's dinner of setting the text), with three spaces closed up...

   2007, Mark Bland, Early Modern Manuscript and Printed Book Studies

   Synonyms: dog's breakfast, bedlam, car crash, chaos, confusion, disarray, disorder, disorganization