fool around

1. Engage in flirting or casual sexual acts; also, engage in adultery. For example, He caught the two teenagers fooling around in the basement . [1830s]

2. Also, monkey around . Engage in idle or casual activity, putter. For example, Jim loved to fool around with his computer , or She was monkeying around with some figures in hopes of balancing the budget . [Second half of 1800s]

3. Engage in frivolous activity, waste time. For example, Instead of studying, he spends all his spare time fooling around . Also see fool away .

Example Sentences

Players were in a dorm room fooling around with a gun.

From Los Angeles Times

“Why don’t you just fool around, continue to hug and kiss and touch and wait a few more years?”

From Los Angeles Times

“I didn’t think we had time to fool around.”

From New York Times

While “fooling around” with a body of photographs from 2010 — in color, as usual — she decided to flip them to black and white.

From New York Times

Chief among them is that Mother Nature didn’t fool around in 2023 — we have endured 25 natural disasters this year with individual price tags of more than $1 billion.

From Los Angeles Times