as in to play (on or upon)
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Recent Examples of jerk around
And that’s not even taking into consideration the continual jerking around of Busy Philipps.
—
Bethy Squires, Vulture, 18 July 2025
He was locked up to be a franchise player, and franchise players aren’t typically jerked around like that.
—Grant Brisbee, New York Times, 18 June 2025
The vehicles are tricked out with surround sound, too; and at one point on our joyride the bus was jerked around by the bus driver to simulate the sensation of a subway speeding underfoot.
—Patricia Marx, New Yorker, 5 May 2025
The shocking news out of this summer’s Olympic break-dancing competition in Paris wasn’t that a female Australian competitor had hopped and jerked around like Uma Thurman being revived from a drug coma in Pulp Fiction.
—Christian Schneider, National Review, 24 Oct. 2024
Jaden Ivey, Detroit Pistons Category: Starter to star After a year where the former lottery pick was jerked around in regard to minutes, role, and even on-court responsibilities, Ivey is now set to enter his third year, finally with some stability attached to his name.
—Morten Stig Jensen, Forbes, 17 Sep. 2024
For a population like Gaza’s, there’s not enough food, people have been jerked around from place to place.
—Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 8 May 2024
The guy in the center seat where the stringer was tied off noticed it was being jerked around.
—Idaho Statesman, 2 Mar. 2016
Bethy Squires, Vulture, 18 July 2025
He was locked up to be a franchise player, and franchise players aren’t typically jerked around like that.
—Grant Brisbee, New York Times, 18 June 2025
The vehicles are tricked out with surround sound, too; and at one point on our joyride the bus was jerked around by the bus driver to simulate the sensation of a subway speeding underfoot.
—Patricia Marx, New Yorker, 5 May 2025
The shocking news out of this summer’s Olympic break-dancing competition in Paris wasn’t that a female Australian competitor had hopped and jerked around like Uma Thurman being revived from a drug coma in Pulp Fiction.
—Christian Schneider, National Review, 24 Oct. 2024
Jaden Ivey, Detroit Pistons Category: Starter to star After a year where the former lottery pick was jerked around in regard to minutes, role, and even on-court responsibilities, Ivey is now set to enter his third year, finally with some stability attached to his name.
—Morten Stig Jensen, Forbes, 17 Sep. 2024
For a population like Gaza’s, there’s not enough food, people have been jerked around from place to place.
—Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 8 May 2024
The guy in the center seat where the stringer was tied off noticed it was being jerked around.
—Idaho Statesman, 2 Mar. 2016
Recent Examples of Synonyms for jerk around
Verb
-
An onboard synthesizer manipulates a small set of core sounds to mimic everything from the roar of a jet plane to the flushing of a toilet through a little speaker in the Brick.—
New Atlas,
New Atlas,
6 Jan. 2026
-
In some cases, CBS News ran images through AI detection tools, which can be inconsistent or inaccurate but can still help flag possibly manipulated content.—
CBS News,
CBS News,
6 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Privacy and partners Lenovo built Qira using a hybrid AI architecture.—
Aamir Khollam,
Interesting Engineering,
7 Jan. 2026
-
Soft, spreadable butter that can be used instantly on toast and biscuits, or in baking recipes for cookies, cakes, and more.—
Alicia Geigel,
Southern Living,
7 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
Those arrested during the operation include four men charged with pimping, pandering and violating a protective order, who face anywhere between six and 20 years in prison if convicted, according to the District Attorney’s Office.—
City News Service,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
23 Dec. 2025
-
Coleman pimped the first victim out to between 10 and 16 clients every day.—
Colleen Cronin,
Boston Herald,
10 Dec. 2025
Verb
-
Weiser, who is running for governor in this year’s election, characterized the attacks as Trump trying to leverage the power of the executive branch to exercise unconstitutional authority over how individual states conduct elections and oversee their criminal justice systems.—
Nick Coltrain,
Denver Post,
9 Jan. 2026
-
But a constant churn of financial maneuvers (spinning off Saks’ e-commerce, creating co-working spaces in underutilized stores, all while being highly leveraged) brought some benefit but never obviated the need to invest more in basics.—
Phil Wahba,
Fortune,
8 Jan. 2026
Verb
-
The Legal Accountability Project claims circuit court executives failed to intervene when Merriam continued to mistreat staff after the first complaint.—
Edmund H. Mahony,
Hartford Courant,
1 Jan. 2026
-
In its statement following his death, PETA accused Easley of mistreating the tigers under his care.—
Brian Brant,
PEOPLE,
11 Dec. 2025
Verb
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The pair also pretended that Tammy was allegedly abusing them.—
Charlotte Phillipp,
PEOPLE,
9 Nov. 2025
-
In handing down the sentence, Montenegro said Bonillo understood the scope of his misdeeds, abused his position of trust and used that position to enrich himself while undermining CBP’s main goal.—
Alex Riggins,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
8 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Jerk around.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/jerk%20around. Accessed 10 Jan. 2026.
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