Synonyms

horse around

British

verb

informal (intr, adverb) to indulge in horseplay

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

horse around Idioms

Indulge in frivolous activity or play. For example, The boys were horsing around all afternoon. This term presumably alludes to horseplay, which has meant “rough or boisterous play” since the late 1500s. [First half of 1900s]

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.

The youngsters sulk, stomp and scamper, pull pranks and horse around.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 1, 2024

"So of course children horse around and they might have skin to skin contact, but usually it's not prolonged during most activities."

From Salon • Aug. 9, 2022

Charlotte Casiraghi, a niece of Prince Albert of Monaco, opened the Chanel Haute Couture show by riding her horse around the catwalk in Paris.

From BBC • Jan. 26, 2022

He walked from his boardinghouse to the inauguration and rode a horse around Washington instead of a coach.

From Textbooks • Jan. 18, 2018

And what makes it extra bad, see, is the poor dudes can’t horse around like normal.

From "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023