fool around

Idioms  

1. 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]

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

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

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Example Sentences

"He'd fool around at the reception desk and would check patients in," he says.

From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026

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 • Dec. 20, 2023

Swallows, with their forked black tails, fool around in the wind by the raw bluff face, just beneath a stretch of floppy, black, muddy pipe that used to be underground.

From Seattle Times • Jul. 28, 2023

And Duke doesn’t fool around with the precision of its colors.

From New York Times • Mar. 31, 2022

“Well, we ain’t got no ketchup. You go get wood. An’ don’t you fool around.

From "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck