fool around

Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.

Meaning · English

To waste time or behave frivolously

Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt

Lãng phí thời gian hoặc hành động một cách phù phiếm

Machine-translated — suggest a fix

Literally: play foolishly
Where it’s used: Used Widespread English

Examples

The kids were fooling around in the backyard

AI-drafted example auto-approved by rule (illustrative, not a corpus attestation)

Sources & notes

Listed in Wiktionary’s “English idioms” category (retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.

Common questions

What does “fool around” mean?

To waste time or behave frivolously Literally: play foolishly

Is “fool around” formal or informal?

No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.