Word.ws English Dictionary

fanny around

fanny around is the alternative form of fanny about.

Meaning of fanny about

Verb

fanny about (third-person singular simple present fannies about, present participle fannying about, simple past and past participle fannied about)

  1. (UK, intransitive, slang) To waste time or fool around; to engage in activity which produces little or no accomplishment.
    • Then he dithered and fannied about.1977, Jon Fleming et al., Soldiers on Everest, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, page 97
  2. (UK, intransitive, slang, transitive) To wander about or prowl around.
    • ... the mechanic who tidied up after the Krays, took care of business while the Twins were fannying around the clubland circuit.2001, Iain Sinclair, Landor's Tower, →ISBN, page 287
    Synonyms:
    bum around

Forms of fanny around

third-person singular presentfannies around
present participlefannying around
past participlefannied around
pastfannied around

Questions about fanny around

What is fanny around the alternative form of?
Fanny around is the alternative form of fanny about.

Words near fanny around in the dictionary

  1. Fannons
  2. Fanns
  3. fanny
  4. fanny about
  5. Fanny Adams
  6. fanny around
  7. fanny batter
  8. fanny dipper
  9. fanny dippers
  10. fanny fart
  11. fanny farts

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fanny around (page history and authors); fanny about (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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