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
-
Do not allow someone else to manipulate your feelings.—
Georgia Nicols,
Denver Post,
29 May 2026
-
However, a lusty CPU and GPU can only do so much in local AI processing if the system lacks adequate RAM and local storage to hold and manipulate large models.—
John Burek,
PC Magazine,
29 May 2026
Verb
-
In the third, La Mirada used a single and two walks to load the bases with two outs but Escobar escaped when shortstop Angie Jimenez snagged a line drive.—
Dan Albano,
Oc Register,
30 May 2026
-
Norrased, who did most of the communication with the villagers in Thai, taught them how to correctly use the mouthpiece for the oxygen tanks.—
CNN Money,
CNN Money,
30 May 2026
Verb
-
With a focus on combating prostitution, pimping, pandering, and human trafficking impacting the downtown area, officers with the San Bernardino Police Department served a search warrant on April 29 at the motel.—
Zach Boetto,
CBS News,
2 May 2026
-
Dquanzie Blackmon was charged with human trafficking, pimping, and pandering and remains jailed in lieu of $300,000 bail, court records show.—
Nate Gartrell,
Mercury News,
29 Apr. 2026
Verb
-
The state funding will serve as matching funds to leverage federal and private investment in the project, which will be located at the center of MIT’s Cambridge campus.—
Kaif Shaikh,
Interesting Engineering,
31 May 2026
-
But the VaMEx team is exploring combinations of driving, walking, and flying systems to leverage what each concept brings to the table in terms of jointly investigating a large area with varied environmental characteristics.—
Leonard David,
Space.com,
31 May 2026
Verb
-
Immigration officials insisted she had not been mistreated.—
Tim Sullivan,
Los Angeles Times,
29 May 2026
-
Your daughter is mistreating you.—
Judith Martin,
Mercury News,
29 May 2026
Verb
-
Crooks have learned how to abuse them, steal them and trick people into handing them over.—
Kurt Knutsson,
FOXNews.com,
1 June 2026
-
What is perhaps most troubling is the actions of some to abuse their access to privileged and confidential information to mispresent facts, manipulate situations and selectively use and leak that information to promote personal agendas.—
Michael T. Nietzel,
Forbes.com,
1 June 2026
Cite this Entry
“Jerk around.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/jerk%20around. Accessed 6 Jun. 2026.
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