as in fiddling (around)
to spend time in aimless activity
I spent all weekend at home just puttering around
Synonyms & Similar Words
Relevance
Antonyms & Near Antonyms
Example Sentences
Recent Examples of Synonyms for puttering (around)
Verb
-
By July that year, Kelly, this time playing for England, famously scored that penalty against Spain in the Euros final, securing the Lionesses their second Euros title in a row.—
Kati Chitrakorn,
CNN Money,
5 Mar. 2026 -
Cross has not scored while playing eight minutes.—
Gary Bedore
March 4,
Kansas City Star,
5 Mar. 2026
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
-
Morgan had been messing around with a curveball, but didn’t actually throw it until a workout at Petco Park a week before the draft.—
Jeff Sanders,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
26 Feb. 2026
-
Advertisement Soon afterward, however, at a Red Bull event in Austria, Goepper began messing around on a quarterpipe.—
Sean Gregory,
Time,
18 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
In 2019, city employees began hanging about 500 trick-or-treat pumpkin buckets in the trees on Main Street every October.—
Elliott Harrell,
Travel + Leisure,
18 Oct. 2025
-
Orion Nebula Those viewing from a dark sky location may also notice a blurry patch of light hanging about 5 degrees below Orion's belt.—
Anthony Wood,
Space.com,
14 Oct. 2025
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.
Cite this Entry
“Puttering (around).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/puttering%20%28around%29. Accessed 6 Mar. 2026.
Copy CitationLove words? Need even more definitions?
Merriam-Webster unabridged
