kick around

1 to give serious and careful thought to the board spent the afternoon kicking around the feasibility of opening an overseas office Synonyms chew over, cogitate, consider, contemplate, debate, deliberate, entertain, eye, ponder, meditate, mull (over), perpend, pore (over), question, revolve, ruminate, study, think (about or over), turn, weigh, wrestle (with)Related Words muse (upon), reflect (on or upon), reminisce; analyze, explore, review; conclude, reason; second-guess, speculate (about); brood (about or over), dwell (on or upon), fixate (on or upon), fret (about or over), obsess (about or over); believe, conceive, opine; absorb, assimilate, digest, drink (in)Near Antonyms disregard, ignore, overlook, slight; dismiss, pooh-pooh (also pooh), reject

2 to spend time in aimless activity I really can't do much but kick around at work until I get the rest of the submissions Synonyms doodle, fool around, fribble, goof (around), hang about [British], fiddle, mess around, monkey (around), play, potter (around), putter (around), trifleRelated Words dally, dawdle, dillydally, hang (around or out), idle, loaf, loll, lounge; clown (around), horse around; diddle (with), tinkerNear Antonyms buckle (down), knuckle down, set (to), settle (down)

3 to spend time doing nothing spent the afternoon kicking around, while his wife bought out the mall Synonyms bum, chill, dally, dawdle, dillydally, drone, footle, goof (off), hack (around), hang (around or out), hang about [British], idle, kick back, laze, lazy, loaf, loll, lounge, veg outRelated Words fiddle (around), fool, mess, monkey, muck, piddle, play, potter (around), putter (around), trifle; doze, estivate (also aestivate), hibernate; lag, linger, loiter, poke, relax, rest, tarry; amble, mosey, saunter, stroll, swan; furlough, goldbrick, malinger, truantNear Antonyms drudge, grind, grub, hump, hustle, labor, moil, peg, plod, plow, plug, slave, sweat, toil, travail, work; apply, buckle (down); exert, put out

4 to move about from place to place aimlessly after spending a year in Europe kicking around, the backpacker was ready to return home Synonyms bat, cruise, drift, float, gad (about), gallivant (also galavant), wander, knock (about), maunder, meander, mooch, ramble, range, roam, rove, traipseRelated Words amble, saunter, stroll; dawdle, mope; gypsy, hobo, tramp, vagabond; mill (about or around); straggle, stray

5 to inflict physical or emotional harm upon children who were raised by an alcoholic father who regularly kicked them around Synonyms brutalize, bully, ill-treat, ill-use, abuse, maltreat, manhandle, mess over [slang], mishandle, mistreat, misuseRelated Words molest, outrage, violate; harass, harm, hurt, injure, oppress, persecute, torment, torture; burn, sandbag, victimize, wrong; beat (up), mess (up), rough (up), work (over)Near Antonyms care (for), cherish, foster, nurture; baby, cater (to), coddle, favor, gratify, humor, indulge, mollycoddle, pamper, spoil