screw around
Idioms-
Fool around aimlessly, accomplishing nothing, as in If you boys would stop screwing around we'd have the fence painted in an hour . It is also put as screw around with , as in Stop screwing around with the new camera . The idiom probably derives from screw in the sense of “turn” or “twist.” [ Slang ; second half of 1900s]
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Be sexually promiscuous, as in He's been screwing around behind her back for years . [ Vulgar slang ; 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.
You don’t screw around with nuances of storytelling, and you don’t sit with investors telling the same rudimentary story.
From The Verge ● Jul. 4, 2022
There are many novels about the end of the world; much rarer are books that don’t destroy all life on Earth, just kind of screw around with it a little to see what happens.
From New York Times ● Jun. 1, 2021
Saslaw added that Justice should be focused on solving West Virginia’s high poverty rate and “not screw around in Virginia.”
From Washington Times ● Jan. 28, 2020
“They’re disregarding the first rule of primary politics in a crowded field, which is don’t screw around in the mud because you will get dirty,” the strategist noted.
From Fox News ● Jan. 14, 2020
They don't screw around when making this stuff.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
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.
