as in joking
wildly playful or mischievous behavior
at the beach there was a lot more horsing around on the sand than actual swimming in the water
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
as in cutting up
to engage in attention-getting playful or boisterous behavior
the boys were horsing around on the boat when one of them fell overboard
Synonyms & Similar Words
Example Sentences
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to
show current usage.
Read More
Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors.
Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of horsing around
Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair, 20 Feb. 2026
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
Verb
Bevel was horsing around with the Reverend James Orange and Andy Young in the courtyard under King's balcony, according to Orange.
—Gail Sheehy, Vanity Fair, 20 Feb. 2026
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
Recent Examples of Synonyms for horsing around
Noun
-
The women’s team declined their joking invitation and had to explain comments directed at them.—
Dave Hyde,
Sun Sentinel,
28 Feb. 2026
-
The tiny macaque, born on July 26, is often spotted clutching a plush toy from IKEA and has melted hearts across the internet, inspiring a wave of comments from fans half-joking about booking flights to Japan to check on him.—
Joshua Mellin,
Travel + Leisure,
27 Feb. 2026
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
-
Ford is planning on cutting up to 1,000 roles in electric-vehicle production in Germany.—
Hugh Cameron,
MSNBC Newsweek,
16 Sep. 2025
Noun
-
Barnett was the second Mississippi resident to take the monkey business into their own hands.—
Bracey Harris,
NBC news,
5 Nov. 2025
-
The monkey business is dominated by a handful of highly secretive and rivalrous brokers.—
Ava Kofman,
New Yorker,
3 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
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,
Los Angeles Times,
7 Feb. 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,
Quanta Magazine,
8 Aug. 2025
Verb
-
On March 2—one day before debuting her new pageboy bob at Paris Fashion Week—Hadid made her grand entrance in a pair of straight-leg jeans that stop well above the ankle, showing off much of her beige crew sock and the entire tongue of her black loafers.—
Emily Tannenbaum,
Glamour,
7 Mar. 2026
-
Nadella wrote in an October X post showing off the abiltiy to toggle between Anthropic and OpenAI models in Microsoft 365 Copilot.—
Jordan Novet,
CNBC,
6 Mar. 2026
Verb
-
Likewise, when the young men started acting up, Josephine Holt took a keen interest in her newspaper.—
Literary Hub,
Literary Hub,
21 Jan. 2026
-
If your trackpad is acting up, keyboard shortcuts can keep you productive without fighting the cursor.—
Ken Colburn,
AZCentral.com,
19 Jan. 2026
Noun
-
Yes, this is the modern clowning that all the thinkpieces are thinking about.—
Bethy Squires,
Vulture,
1 Mar. 2026
-
With an impressive ability to do accents and a background in clowning, Storrie is made for this.—
Tiffany Kelly,
Entertainment Weekly,
27 Feb. 2026
Noun
-
Those dousings also prompted outrage from police leaders — who decried it as an inexcusable sign of disrespect, and even suggested that officers willing to walk away from that kind of horseplay should consider another line of work.—
Anthony Izaguirre,
Fortune,
26 Feb. 2026
-
Yet this is truly an ensemble show, in which each performer has multiple opportunities to shine, executing some splendidly silly bits together, such as delivering CPR to a sandwich or convincingly channeling their inner tots during some post-bedtime horseplay.—
Rob Hubbard,
Twin Cities,
1 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Horsing around.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/horsing%20around. Accessed 9 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
