arse around

English

Alternative forms

arse about

Pronunciation

Audio (AU) (file)

Verb

arse around (third-person singular simple present arses around, present participle arsing around, simple past and past participle arsed around)

(intransitive, slang) To behave in a clownish, irresponsible or inefficient manner.
Quit arsing around and get to work!
- 1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], OCLC 560090630, part II [Odyssey], page 299:
  Gob, he’s not as green as he’s cabbagelooking. Arsing around from one pub to another, leaving it to your honour, with old Giltrap’s dog and getting fed up by the ratepayers and corporators.
- 1944, Nevil Shute, Pastoral, London: Pan Books, 1964, Chapter 2,
  […] up in London you arse around and go to the local and meet the boys and perhaps take in a flick, and then when you go to bed you find you’ve spent a quid and wonder where in hell it went and what you got for it.
- 1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin, OCLC 17841394, page 284:
  It’s part of a whole lot of home-movie stuff I’ve just bought at Christie’s. Most of it’s too madly dull for words—you know, gay young things arsing around with no shame.