bum around
Idioms-
Loaf, wander idly, as in After graduating he decided to bum around Europe for a year . [Mid-1800s]
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Frequent bars or nightclubs, as in Her father accused her of bumming around half the night and threatened to cut off her allowance . In the mid-1800s to bum was slang for going on a drinking spree. A century later, with the addition of around , it simply meant going to saloons or clubs.
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“He just wanted to bum around and fish.”
From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 23, 2025
People were hitting the road to avoid a working life and trying to sort of bum around the country,” he said.
From Seattle Times • Sep. 8, 2022
And to this day I am grateful to those photographers and reporters who let me bum around in the back seat of that cruiser.
From Washington Post • Jul. 22, 2019
Are you going to bum around or are you going to write?”
From The Guardian • Feb. 13, 2018
"You will still be counting when dawn breaks in the east. How many fires bum around Riverrun tonight, I wonder?"
From "A Clash of Kings" by George R.R. Martin
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
