muck about

Verb

muck about (third-person singular simple present mucks about, present participle mucking about, simple past and past participle mucked about)

1. (informal, intransitive) To do random unplanned work or spend time idly
   • Stop mucking about and get on with your work!
2. (informal, intransitive) To attempt to do something with a piece of equipment without understanding how it works.
   • Don't muck about with the video machine, or you might break it.
3. (Australia, UK, informal, intransitive) To be playful; full of fun and high spirits; to treat a situation unseriously.
   • It was only a joke. We were only mucking about.
   • The only time I walk out on singin' is when there's muckin' about and youse don't take it serious.1957, Ray Lawler, The Summer of the Seventeenth Doll, Sydney: Fontana Books, published 1974, page 68
4. (transitive) To play with; to toy with; to waste the time of (a person).
   • Then he started stalling. In the end he mucked me about so much that I lost my patience and decided to nick the books from him.1955, Billy Hill, Boss of Britain's Underworld, page 100