to tool around
2
7.7
- phrasal verb
- Informal
:
dar una vuelta
- He could flop for the rest of the day, do laundry, tool around on eBay for a while, and finish reading a novel he'd borrowed from Willy.
- tool around town
- tool around the country
Examples
-
Hey, you wouldn't have seen a bunch of kids tooling around on BMXs?
-
I'll tool around here for a while.
-
You know, you said you were going to get me a little Honda Elite to tool around in.
Fiction book (1992) -
He calls in sick to work, but cameras show him tooling around the city in his car.
Academic text (2004) -
We tooled around the series of bays that lie between the North and South Forks of Long Island.
Fiction book (1997) -
But there I was on Memorial Day weekend 2012, tooling around in one on Cape Hatteras National Seashore, the 67 miles of "Outer Banks" that seal Pamlico.
Blog text (13) -
"I am serious—for three hours now I've been tooling around God knows where," Klaus yells at him.
Fiction book (1998) -
On weekends, I like to tool around the countryside with my friends, enjoying the scenic views.
-
We spent the afternoon just tooling around the city, stopping at parks and cafes as we pleased.
-
He decided to tool around in his old convertible, relishing the freedom of the open road.
Synonyms
379
1.3
Move around without a fixed direction, often slowly and in curves
189
2.5
Move around without a fixed place, often while looking for something
49
2.1
Move from place to place within an area
31
2.6
To take someone in a vehicle to show them interesting places
22
6.4
To travel around without a fixed plan, often looking for something
12
4.1
To drive slowly around an area without a specific destination
3
9.0
To move around places for pleasure without a plan
3
8.4
To drive a car or other vehicle slowly without a plan
1
7.9
To go slowly and enjoy the journey
1
6.5
To move around slowly doing small jobs in no hurry
To travel slowly without a clear plan
To move around a place with no clear purpose
Antonyms
How Leisurely
- Informal
5
6.5
- Informal
2
7.7
1
5.2
108
3.2
372
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to drive or move around casually' is directly derived from combining 'tool' (to travel in a vehicle for leisure) with 'around' (moving about aimlessly), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents can infer the sense. Although informal, the construction is a straightforward motion verb + particle pattern found cross-linguistically and is compositionally predictable rather than idiomatic.
Etymology
The phrasal verb tool around may come from the image of a small tool or machine being moved around a workshop or down a road slowly while someone enjoys the ride. So, it now means 'to drive or move around without a fixed plan, often for fun'.