futz around

Idioms and Phrases

Also, futz with . Waste time or effort on frivolities, play around. For example, He spent all morning futzing around with the report , or No more futzing with the car—we have to go now . This term may be a shortening and corruption of the Yiddish arumfartzen , for “fart around.” [ Slang ; 1920s]

Example Sentences

To help make sense of this barrage of data, FiveThirtyEight recently debuted a tool that it calls the Swing-o-Matic, which allows you to futz around with candidate support and turnout rates for a variety of demographic subgroups that pollsters believe are crucial to party coalitions.

From Slate

Yes, we hate it, yes we love it, and yes, as is our habit, we let time mosey on by as we futz around over what to do.

From Los Angeles Times

It was incredibly hot to wear silicone, so there wasn’t as much time to futz around.

From New York Times

There’s not much to do on it aside from futz around with watch faces, read tutorials, tweak settings, and that’s… about it.

From The Verge

At $130, the Nest Doorbell is a solid option if you prefer not to futz around with hardwiring, and it comes in an array of muted colors so you can best match the exterior of your home.

From The Verge

Related Words

• analyze
• examine
• explore