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
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Julie asked Jimmy Heagerty about where things stood with Mickey Lee, and Jimmy said Morgan did a great job manipulating Mickey into sending him home.—
David Wysong,
Cincinnati Enquirer,
29 Sep. 2025
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With its flexible solvers, Newton allows developers to simulate complex, real-world tasks ranging from walking on snow and gravel to manipulating fragile objects like cups and fruit.—
Neetika Walter,
Interesting Engineering,
29 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Opera has used the Neon name before for a concept browser back in 2017.—
James Peckham,
PC Magazine,
30 Sep. 2025
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Others, however, believed that Johnson used his access as leverage in dealing with Bukele.—
T. Christian Miller,
ProPublica,
30 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Evans, a Stockton resident, has prior pimping convictions from 2017, in Santa Clara County, and 2021, in San Joaquin County, according to court records.—
Nate Gartrell,
Mercury News,
21 Sep. 2025
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In Rolling Stone’s year-end issue for 1990, the first page had loads of stars giving their summary of the year, mostly pimping their latest career highlights.—
Rob Sheffield,
Rolling Stone,
23 July 2025
Verb
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The prospect, then, that a robot could leverage a battery that offers six times as much energy capacity is one that could propel the industry forward in terms of return on investment for robotics solutions.—
Meghan Hall,
Sourcing Journal,
24 Sep. 2025
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Gamow leveraged this fact to make three great, generic predictions about the young Universe.—
Ethan Siegel,
Big Think,
23 Sep. 2025
Verb
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There's value in giving girls their flowers, especially girls that are almost always mistreated.—
Zhong Lin,
Allure,
23 Sep. 2025
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But Schlitz couldn’t ignore that his biracial, Black daughter seemed to be mistreated in comparison to other students.—
Talia McWright,
Twin Cities,
21 Sep. 2025
Verb
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There were ugly scenes at the Bethpage golf course throughout yesterday’s second day of play as European players, McIlroy in particular, were routinely heckled and abused by rowdy fans, including while standing over shots.—
Andreas Wiseman,
Deadline,
28 Sep. 2025
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The lawsuit further alleges that the airlines manipulated and abused the arrival rate system at DCA airport to force more arrivals per hour, despite knowing that doing so would reduce safety margins.—
Michelle Del Rey,
USA Today,
26 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Jerk around.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/jerk%20around. Accessed 30 Sep. 2025.
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