Word.ws English Dictionary

fiddling around

fiddling around is the present participle and gerund of fiddle around.

Meaning of fiddle around

Verb

fiddle around (third-person singular simple present fiddles around, present participle fiddling around, simple past and past participle fiddled around)

  1. (intransitive, transitive) To toy or play (with something) in an idle, fidgety, aimless or unstructured way; to mess around (with); to muck around (with).
    • Stop fiddling around with those matches before you set the place on fire.
  2. (intransitive, transitive) To tinker (with): to make small adjustments or improvements (to something), especially in an experimental or unskilled manner.
    • I've been fiddling around all morning, trying to get this old lawnmower to work.

Questions about fiddling around

What is fiddling around the present participle and gerund of?
Fiddling around is the present participle and gerund of fiddle around.

Words near fiddling around in the dictionary

  1. fiddliest
  2. fiddlin'
  3. fiddliness
  4. fiddling
  5. fiddling about
  6. fiddling around
  7. fiddling away
  8. fiddling while Rome burns
  9. fiddling with
  10. fiddlings
  11. fiddlist

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: fiddling around (page history and authors); fiddle around (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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Cite this entry: “fiddling around.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/fiddling_around. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.