hames
HAYMZnounColloquial
A Hiberno-English slang term. Browse all Irish slang.
What it means
A botched job. Almost always in 'to make a hames of', meaning to do something so badly it has to be undone.
In use
They made a right hames of the accounts.
Don't make a hames of it this time.
Where it comes from
The hames are the two curved pieces of a horse's collar that the traces attach to. Fitting them the wrong way round made the harness useless, and the phrase outlived working horses by a century.
Other forms
- Similar terms:
- balls of it, dog's dinner