as in to act up
to engage in attention-getting playful or boisterous behavior
high-spirited cousins who cut up at every family gathering
Synonyms & Similar Words
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as in carouser
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of cut up
Tom Smyth, Vulture, 31 Dec. 2025
Start with a whole chicken, cut up, and simmer in a homemade barbecue sauce of ketchup, cola, cider vinegar, and a splash of bourbon for a Southern barbecue flavor.
—Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 30 Dec. 2025
A.a. Dowd, Rolling Stone, 17 May 2024
Joe Walsh gonna Joe Walsh Rock and roll has no shortage of cutups and characters in its ranks, but few are as divinely silly as Joe Walsh.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 Jan. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cut up
Verb
Meanwhile, as all of this is happening, Meredith is cutting up with the other ladies at the spa, without a care in the world.
—Tom Smyth, Vulture, 31 Dec. 2025
Start with a whole chicken, cut up, and simmer in a homemade barbecue sauce of ketchup, cola, cider vinegar, and a splash of bourbon for a Southern barbecue flavor.
—Alana Al-Hatlani, Southern Living, 30 Dec. 2025
Noun
Apparently all-in on Reynolds, Hollywood is now reasoning that his star power — some chemically adhesive combination of dashing leading man, comic-relief cutup, and lifestyle mogul — will prove irresistible regardless of the context.
—A.a. Dowd, Rolling Stone, 17 May 2024
Joe Walsh gonna Joe Walsh Rock and roll has no shortage of cutups and characters in its ranks, but few are as divinely silly as Joe Walsh.
—Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 7 Jan. 2024
See All Example Sentences for cut up
Recent Examples of Synonyms for cut up
Verb
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Likewise, when the young men started acting up, Josephine Holt took a keen interest in her newspaper.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 Jan. 2026
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If your trackpad is acting up, keyboard shortcuts can keep you productive without fighting the cursor.—
Ken Colburn,
AZCentral.com,
19 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Her All’s Fair costar Nash-Betts describes Taylor as serious about her craft but quite the jokester off set.—
Lindsey Underwood,
Vanity Fair,
13 Jan. 2026
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The 17-year-old boy killed on a Queens street was remembered Saturday as a happy jokester.—
Rebecca White,
New York Daily News,
10 Jan. 2026
Noun
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Take William Shakespeare, who is often portrayed as a carouser, downing pints while exchanging barbs with his fellow writers, cheating on his wife with both men and women, passionately engaging his quill to reimagine the very nature of the human being.—
Isaac Butler,
The Atlantic,
3 Nov. 2025
Verb
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People confirmed the news on January 24 after Mariano shared a photo of herself holding their first child, daughter Ke'ala Coral, in a bikini that appeared to show off her growing bump.—
Meg Walters,
InStyle,
25 Jan. 2026
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That’s the fun discovery meteorologist Jennifer McDermed showed off in a post on X last week, amid severe winter weather across much of the country.—
Adam Carlson,
PEOPLE,
25 Jan. 2026
Noun
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The couple fought about money, household chores, and Anton's alleged reputation as a party animal.—
Allison DeGrushe,
Entertainment Weekly,
30 Oct. 2025
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The legendary nightlife scene in Belgrade, Serbia, is the recommendation for party animals in Europe.—
CNN.com Wire Service,
Mercury News,
22 Oct. 2025
Verb
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In April 2020, Iglesias shared a video of him horsing around with Lucy and Nicholas as the pair attempted to climb on his back for a ride.—
Andrea Wurzburger,
PEOPLE,
19 Jan. 2026
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At this point in time, my little AI company, a lean and mean group of passionate believers, is horsing around fine-tuning the product, living on a couple of angel investments, where a 10X return on few million dollars is very satisfying, not only to the angel, but also to the employees.—
Neil Senturia,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
6 Oct. 2025
Noun
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The comedian wore dangly diamond and pearl earrings and styled her hair in soft waves.—
Ashley Hume,
FOXNews.com,
12 Jan. 2026
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Wanda Sykes made sure that comedian Ricky Gervais — a comedian whose past material raised eyebrows and allegations of transphobia — shared his big 2026 Golden Globes night with a higher power and the transgender community.—
Joey Nolfi,
Entertainment Weekly,
12 Jan. 2026
Verb
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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
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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,
Quanta Magazine,
8 Aug. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Cut up.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/cut%20up. Accessed 1 Feb. 2026.
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