muck around

muck around
(in BRIT, also use muck about)
1) PHRASAL VERB If you muck around or muck about, you behave in a childish or silly way, often so that you waste your time and fail to achieve anything. [mainly BRIT, INFORMAL]

[V P] We do not want people of his age mucking around risking people's lives...

[V P prep/adv] He'd spent his boyhood summers mucking about in boats...

[V P prep/adv] The last I saw of him though he was mucking about with the nurses and really enjoying himself.

Syn:
mess about
2) PHRASAL VERB If you muck around with or muck about with something, you alter it, often making it worse than it was. [mainly BRIT, INFORMAL]

[V P with n] The president's wife doesn't muck around with policy or sit in on Cabinet meetings.

Syn:
3) PHRASAL VERB If you muck someone around or muck them about, you treat them badly, for example by not being honest with them or by continually changing plans which affect them. [mainly BRIT, INFORMAL]

[V n P] He does not tolerate anyone who mucks him about.

Syn:
mess about

English dictionary. 2008.

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Look at other dictionaries:

  • muck around — (with (something)) to do something without a serious purpose. Why was she mucking around in such a risky neighborhood? I kept working on this text until I thought it was good, and then I tried not to muck around with it anymore …   New idioms dictionary

  • muck around — phrasal verb muck about or muck around Word forms muck about : present tense I/you/we/they muck about he/she/it mucks about present participle mucking about past tense mucked about past participle mucked about British informal 1) [intransitive]… …   English dictionary

  • muck around with something — muck around (with (something)) to do something without a serious purpose. Why was she mucking around in such a risky neighborhood? I kept working on this text until I thought it was good, and then I tried not to muck around with it anymore …   New idioms dictionary

  • muck around with — muck around (with (something)) to do something without a serious purpose. Why was she mucking around in such a risky neighborhood? I kept working on this text until I thought it was good, and then I tried not to muck around with it anymore …   New idioms dictionary

  • muck around — verb do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly The old lady is usually mucking about in her little house • Syn: ↑putter, ↑mess around, ↑potter, ↑tinker, ↑monkey, ↑monkey around, ↑muck about …   Useful english dictionary

  • muck around — verb Means the same as muck about …   Wiktionary

  • Muck around — play around in a way that others generally don t like …   Dictionary of Australian slang

  • muck around — Australian Slang play around in a way that others generally don t like …   English dialects glossary

  • muck around with something — ˌmuck aˈbout/aˈround with sth derived (BrE, informal, disapproving) to do sth, especially to a machine, so that it does not work correctly Syn: ↑mess about …   Useful english dictionary

  • muck — [muk] n. [ME muk < or akin to ON myki, dung < IE base * meuk , slippery, viscous > MEEK, L mucus] 1. moist manure 2. black earth containing decaying matter, used as a fertilizer 3. a) mire; mud b) anything uncl …   English World dictionary

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