Word.ws English Dictionary

goofing off

goofing off is the present participle and gerund of goof off.

Meaning of goof off

Verb

goof off (third-person singular simple present goofs off, present participle goofing off, simple past and past participle goofed off)

  1. (Australia, US, intransitive, slang) To dawdle, lollygag; to waste time aimlessly or engage in idle activity or inactivity.
    • He sat there goofing off all day instead of working.
  2. (US, dated, slang, transitive) To make a mistake.
    • He goofed off this whole project.
  3. (US, dated, intransitive, slang) To fall asleep or pass out on drugs.

Questions about goofing off

What is goofing off the present participle and gerund of?
Goofing off is the present participle and gerund of goof off.

Words near goofing off in the dictionary

  1. goofily
  2. goofiness
  3. goofinesses
  4. goofing
  5. goofing around
  6. goofing off
  7. goofing on
  8. goofing up
  9. goofings
  10. goofish
  11. goofishness

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: goofing off (page history and authors); goof off (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: “goofing off.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/goofing_off. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.