putter around
phrasal verb
puttered around; puttering around; putters around
US
: to spend time in a relaxed way doing small jobs and other things that are not very important
I didn't do much last weekend. I just puttered around.
He spent his vacation puttering around the house/garden.
Examples of putter around in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The Mad Men star gets to show off his comedic chops as the amnesiac Gabriel, puttering around the bookshop and smiling blankly.
—
Devan Coggan, EW.com, 20 July 2023
Levin believes his clients don’t want a highway cruiser, that most buy a Wolf to putter around town or keep at their vacation homes for short hauls.
—Michael Van Runkle, Robb Report, 14 Feb. 2024
In 1969, the Hornet was in between assignments in Vietnam and sort of puttering around the Pacific Ocean.
—John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 30 Jan. 2024
Or just putter around in the morning, like Jeff Bezos.
—Ray A. Smith, WSJ, 26 Oct. 2023
The characters in the WIRED sim include Jennifer Moore, a 68-year-old watercolor painter who putters around the house most days; Mei Lin, a professor who can often be found helping her kids with their homework; and Tom Moreno, a cantankerous shopkeeper.
—Will Knight, WIRED, 12 Oct. 2023
From that position, a one-and-half-mile-long drill pipe--that’s how deep the water was--could conceivably collapse and fall on a submersible puttering around either one of the two sites.
—Robert Kunzig, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
As played with striking resemblance to the real thing by Chilean actor Jaime Vadell, Larraín’s Count Pinochet spends his days puttering around to old military marches.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 15 Sep. 2023
No, ripping through round after round of biceps curls, bench presses, or squats on their own, half-heartedly puttering around a few other accessory movement, and then calling it a day doesn't count.
—Brett Williams, Men's Health, 31 July 2023
Devan Coggan, EW.com, 20 July 2023
Levin believes his clients don’t want a highway cruiser, that most buy a Wolf to putter around town or keep at their vacation homes for short hauls.
—Michael Van Runkle, Robb Report, 14 Feb. 2024
In 1969, the Hornet was in between assignments in Vietnam and sort of puttering around the Pacific Ocean.
—John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 30 Jan. 2024
Or just putter around in the morning, like Jeff Bezos.
—Ray A. Smith, WSJ, 26 Oct. 2023
The characters in the WIRED sim include Jennifer Moore, a 68-year-old watercolor painter who putters around the house most days; Mei Lin, a professor who can often be found helping her kids with their homework; and Tom Moreno, a cantankerous shopkeeper.
—Will Knight, WIRED, 12 Oct. 2023
From that position, a one-and-half-mile-long drill pipe--that’s how deep the water was--could conceivably collapse and fall on a submersible puttering around either one of the two sites.
—Robert Kunzig, Discover Magazine, 11 Nov. 2019
As played with striking resemblance to the real thing by Chilean actor Jaime Vadell, Larraín’s Count Pinochet spends his days puttering around to old military marches.
—David Fear, Rolling Stone, 15 Sep. 2023
No, ripping through round after round of biceps curls, bench presses, or squats on their own, half-heartedly puttering around a few other accessory movement, and then calling it a day doesn't count.
—Brett Williams, Men's Health, 31 July 2023
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'putter around.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
Dictionary Entries Near putter around
Cite this Entry
“Putter around.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/putter%20around. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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