to muck around
3
8.4
- phrasal verb
- /mʌk əˈraʊnd/
- UK
:
perder el tiempo
- No time to waste now; he's mucked around long enough.
- want to muck around
- go mucking around
We've we've mucked around in places and caused trouble.
- We've we've mucked around in places and caused trouble.
- We do some treadmill, some more stretching and essentially just muck around doing stuff that's fun for him.
- And there was there, there was once I built the basic kits and I started to actually muck around with it.
- That sounds like a good thing, but what's the long term ramifications of mucking around with these GOP one receptors?
Examples
-
On weekends, we like to muck around at the park rather than do anything serious.
-
Take it outside if you want to muck around.
-
Mucking around with my kids.
-
He just mucks around, man.
-
We do some treadmill, some more stretching and essentially just muck around doing stuff that's fun for him.
-
Don't panic, it's probably just Ryan and Hanna mucking around.
-
They spent the afternoon mucking around in the backyard, playing games and enjoying the sun.
-
Instead of working on their project, the team decided to muck around and play video games.
Synonyms
888
1.5
Spend time without any activity
728
1.6
To spend time doing things that are not useful instead of doing something more useful
407
2.0
To stay in a place without doing anything important
350
1.1
To spend time sitting and doing very little without a clear purpose
111
4.1
To spend time doing playful or unplanned activities
75
9.9
To waste time or act carelessly
46
3.6
Act in a silly, playful way instead of working
43
3.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
11
7.0
To spend time doing small, not important jobs in a relaxed way
7
4.3
To spend time relaxing and doing very little
5
6.5
To spend time doing small, not important tasks slowly without a clear plan
4
7.3
Waste time by acting silly instead of working
3
5.9
To spend time somewhere doing nothing special
3
7.9
Spend time doing very little or nothing
2
7.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
2
8.6
To spend time doing very little and moving around without plans
2
9.5
To waste time instead of doing the work you need
1
8.7
To spend time doing things that are not important
1
8.7
To waste time doing small unimportant things
1
9.2
To spend time doing small unimportant things instead of working
1
6.5
To spend time slowly doing small simple jobs without hurry
1
3.4
To spend time lazily doing little or nothing
1
7.7
To spend time doing nothing and not working
1
4.4
To spend time doing very little and relaxing
1
9.9
To spend time on small, unimportant tasks instead of getting things done
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
6.5
To move around slowly doing small jobs in no hurry
1
6.5
To spend time doing nothing in a lazy way
1
9.9
To waste time instead of doing something useful
To spend time doing small unimportant things with no real plan
Spend time or money on unimportant things
To waste time doing small, unimportant things
To spend time idly on unimportant things
To waste time instead of doing something useful
To travel slowly without a clear plan
To act in a silly, playful way instead of being serious
To waste time on small unimportant things
Move around without a plan to have fun
To spend time on things that are not useful
Antonyms
How Idle
Surface Forms
Morphology
muck + around
There is a recognisable link between 'muck' (associated with mess/doing something untidy or foolish) and 'around' (moving or acting aimlessly), so a learner could plausibly infer a sense like 'mess about' or 'waste time'. However, the verbal use of 'muck' meaning 'to waste time/behave foolishly' is colloquial and not strictly compositional from the literal senses, so the exact idiomatic sense is not fully predictable without exposure.
Etymology
Muck around comes from the image of people playing in the dirt: muck means mud or a mess and around shows moving here and there. So, to muck around today means 'to spend time doing unimportant or relaxed things', like playing, messing about, or wasting time.