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.

“Marigold’s practicing oboe”—Cady flicked an elbow toward an upstairs window, from which faint, stilted notes of music had been puttering for the last several minutes—“but I don’t know about Zane and Will.”

From "A Tangle of Knots" by Lisa Graff

The engine was out on the ground; he had been puttering with it for two days.

From "The Martian Chronicles" by Ray Bradbury

Anne and her own father had joined the family eight years ago, in the same year that the Strickland Patent Fire Extinguisher, over which the doctor had been puttering for years, had been sold.

From Sisters by Norris, Kathleen Thompson

And, of course, anybody who'd taken that seriously and had been puttering around on a device to make private conversations on a party-line telephone possible, and almost had the trick.

From Sam, This is You by Leinster, Murray

And now grandmother, who had been puttering about, waiting upon her guests, noticed that something was wrong.

From Doctor Jones' Picnic by Chapman, S. E. (Samuel E.)