play around
Third Person
plays around
Present Participle
playing around
Past Tense
played around
Past Participle
played around
1
to behave in an irresponsible or stupid manner
- He needs to stop playing around and take his studies seriously.
- They spent the whole meeting playing around and achieved nothing.
- I wish she wouldn't play around with her health by eating so poorly.
- You can't play around with your responsibilities and expect success.
- If he continues to play around at work, he might lose his job.
2
to engage in romantic or sexual activities outside of a committed relationship
- Rumors say he's been playing around, which might be the reason for the tension in their relationship.
- She confronted him about playing around after finding suspicious messages on his phone.
- Many relationships break down when one partner starts playing around.
- Trust is fragile; playing around can shatter it completely.
- After years of loyalty, she was heartbroken to find out he had been playing around.
Synonyms:
3
to test something without being serious or detailed about it
- Before painting the room, we played around with a few color swatches.
- She likes to play around on the piano, making up tunes.
- I'm not sure how this gadget works, so I'll just play around with it.
- He's playing around with the idea of starting a blog.
- She played around with different filters on her photo app.
4
to experiment with different methods, options, or solutions to see what works best
- We need to play around with the settings to get the best sound quality.
- They played around with different marketing strategies to boost sales.
- She played around various exercise routines to find the one that suited her best.
- The team played around different software solutions to improve efficiency.
- They played around several recipes before settling on the perfect one for the event.