to piss about
1
9.9
- phrasal verb
- /pɪs əˈbaʊt/
- Offensive
:
perder el tiempo
- We wasted the whole afternoon pissing about instead of finishing our project.
Examples
-
They were pissing about with us down at the station.
-
Let's stop pissing about.
-
Are you coming in or are you gonna piss about all day?
-
If you two are doing pissing about...
-
What the hell are you pissin' about? I'd like to know.
Fiction book (1993) -
We went down to the bar together, and you kept pissing about how I was going to dump the wheelchair.
Fiction book (1995) -
Ah well, I'm sorry you're so sensitive but this, this is too important to piss about.
-
Trust me bud, I ain't pissing about.
-
I've got all this bloody work here to do, and they're pissing about in there smoking.
-
Stop pissing about and get back to your homework.
Synonyms
75
9.9
To waste time or act carelessly
8
9.5
To waste time or money by being careless
6
7.2
To waste time by doing small unimportant things
1
8.7
To spend time doing things that are not important
1
9.9
To waste time doing unimportant or silly things instead of doing something important
1
9.9
To waste time doing silly or lazy things instead of useful work
1
9.9
To waste time instead of doing something useful
1
9.9
To waste time instead of doing something useful
Spend time or money on unimportant things
Act in a silly, aimless way and waste time
How Productive
Surface Forms
Morphology
piss + about
The meaning 'to waste time or behave unproductively' cannot be straightforwardly derived from the literal constituents 'piss' (to urinate, vulgar) and 'about' (around). This is a colloquial/idiomatic verbal phrase whose sense is metaphorical and language-specific, so a B1 learner who only knows the parts would be unlikely to predict the intended meaning.
Etymology
Piss about probably comes from a rude image of someone pissing about, moving around without any aim or care. That's why it now means 'to waste time' or 'behave in a silly, unproductive way'.