mess around

Questions about mess around

What does mess around mean?

mess around means "do random, unplanned work or activities or spend time idly".

What is another word for mess around?

Close synonyms include putter, potter, tinker, monkey, monkey around. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is mess around a common word?

mess around is banded "Rare" — specialist or archaic — most readers will not have met it. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.