fool around

verb

variants or chiefly British fool about

fooled around; fooling around; fools around

intransitive verb

1

: to behave in a way that is not very serious

When it comes to safety, we don't fool around.

often, specifically : to spend time idly, aimlessly, or frivolously

Later in the day, the three of us were fooling around, waiting for Mr. Michaels to get class started.

—Marilyn Reynolds

2

: to engage in casual sexual activity

She found out that her partner had been fooling around on her. [=having sex with someone else]

see also fool around with

Synonyms of fool around

• horse around
• cut up
• clown (around)
• show off
• monkey (around)
• act up

Examples of fool around in a Sentence

quit fooling around on the jungle gym, or you'll get hurt

we fooled around outdoors for a while, then went in to get some work done

Recent Examples on the Web

Bella Ramsey takes a break from killing zombies and avenging father figures, their usual pastimes in series The Last of Us, to fool around and fall in love in Sunny Dancer, a decidedly uneven but fitfully charming, YA-skewed British comedy-drama. —Leslie Felperin, HollywoodReporter, 13 Feb. 2026

The transition was rough for Ansari, who wasn’t fluent in English and often got in trouble for fooling around in school. —Los Angeles Times, 7 Feb. 2026

Not too long ago, artificial intelligence was more or less a science project in which data scientists and developers fooled around with one-off small or test projects. —Joe McKendrick, Forbes.com, 26 Jan. 2026

Gisin hopes that by fooling around with measurements of these more exotic states, physicists will come to better understand the role of measurement in general. —Quanta Magazine, 8 Aug. 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1837, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for fool around

• aboveground
• battleground
• belowground
• paperbound
• turnaround
• ultrasound
• underground
• wraparound
• abound
• aground
• astound
• background