The most popular online dictionary and thesaurus for learners of English
mess around
(SPEND TIME) informal (UK also mess about) — phrasal verb with mess /mes/ verbDefinition
(Definition of mess around (SPEND TIME) from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus
© Cambridge University Press)
Focus on the pronunciation of mess around
Browse related topics
You are looking at an entry to do with Avoiding action, but you might be interested in these topics from the Doing and achieving topic area:
- Abstaining and refraining
- Acting and acts
- Becoming better
- Cancelling and interrupting
- Competing and contending (non-sporting)
- Coping and not coping
- Delaying and wasting time
- Describing the leading position
- Efficient and effective
- Expressions telling people to hurry up
- Failing and doing badly
- Failures
- Getting involved for one's own benefit or against others' will
- Hesitating
- Higher and lower points of achievement
- Hurrying and doing things quickly
- Making progress and advancing
- Making things better
- Performing a function
- Potential
- Reacting and responding
- Repeating an action
- Succeeding, achieving and fulfilling
- Success and achievements
- Successful (things or people)
- Surpassing in quality or number
- Taking part and getting involved
- Trying and making an effort
- Unsuccessful (people and things)
- Waiting
- Ways of achieving things
Browse the Dictionary
Browse the Thesaurus
More Results for “mess around”
SMART Thesaurus: Avoiding action
Synonyms and related words:
- avoid sth like the plague idiom
- avoid verb
- avoidance noun
- bottle out phrasal verb
- chicken out phrasal verb
- eschew verb
- evade verb
- evasion noun
- fiddle about/around phrasal verb
- fight shy of idiom
- flinch from sth/doing sth phrasal verb
- malinger verb
- miss noun (NOT DO)
- miss verb (NOT DO)
- not soil your hands idiom
- obviate verb
- weasel out of sth phrasal verb
- wimp out phrasal verb
- wriggle off the hook idiom
- wriggle out of sth phrasal verb
Word of the Day
Blog
Read our blog about how the English language behaves.
New Words
Find words and meanings that have just started to be used in English, and let us know what you think of them.
