fiddle around

fiddle around
(in BRIT, also use fiddle about)
1) PHRASAL VERB If you fiddle around or fiddle about with a machine, you do things to it to try and make it work.

[V P with n] Two of them got out to fiddle around with the engine. [Also V P]

Syn:
2) PHRASAL VERB (disapproval) If someone fiddles around or fiddles about, they waste time doing unimportant things instead of dealing with important problems.

[V P] He wants lawmakers to basically stop fiddling around as the country moves closer to breaking up...

[V P with n] He wastes time fiddling about with minor matters.

3) PHRASAL VERB (disapproval) If you say that someone is fiddling around with or fiddling about with something, you mean that they are changing it in a way that you disapprove of.

[V P P n] Right now in Congress, they're fiddling around with the budget and so on...

[V P P n] One always wonders when a man starts fiddling about with his Will.


English dictionary. 2008.

Игры ⚽ Нужно сделать НИР?

Look at other dictionaries:

  • fiddle around — phrasal verb fiddle around or fiddle about [intransitive] Word forms fiddle around : present tense I/you/we/they fiddle around he/she/it fiddles around present participle fiddling around past tense fiddled around past participle fiddled around 1) …   English dictionary

  • fiddle around — See: FOOL AROUND(3) …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • fiddle around — See: FOOL AROUND(3) …   Dictionary of American idioms

  • fiddle\ around — See: fool around(3) …   Словарь американских идиом

  • fiddle around — tinker, do something in an unplanned way I tried fiddling around with the computer printer for awhile but it still won t work …   Idioms and examples

  • fiddle around — …   Useful english dictionary

  • fiddle around with something — …   Useful english dictionary

  • fiddle — [fid′ l] n. [ME fithele < OE < VL * vitula < L vitulari, to rejoice: vi (< IE * woi , wi , outcry > OE wi, Gr ia) + ? base of tollere, to raise, exalt] 1. Informal any stringed instrument played with a bow, esp. the violin ☆ 2.… …   English World dictionary

  • fiddle — fid|dle1 [ˈfıdl] n informal [Date: 1200 1300; : Medieval Latin; Origin: vitula instrument played at ceremonies ] 1.) a ↑violin 2.) BrE a dishonest way of getting money ▪ an insurance fiddle on the fiddle …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • fiddle — 1 noun (C) informal 1 BrE a dishonest way of getting money: a tax fiddle | be on the fiddle (=be getting money dishonestly or illegally): They suspected he was on the fiddle all along. 2 a violin 3 be a fiddle to be difficult to do and involve… …   Longman dictionary of contemporary English

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