Word.ws English Dictionary

playing around

playing around is the present participle and gerund of play around.

Meaning of play around

Verb

play around (third-person singular simple present plays around, present participle playing around, simple past and past participle played around)

  1. To behave in a silly, childish, or irresponsible way.
    • Stop playing around, and get on with your homework.
  2. To work with something in a non-serious manner; to tweak or tinker.
    • He was interested in electronics and began playing around with amplifiers.
  3. (idiomatic) To engage in sexual practices outside of marriage.

Questions about playing around

What is playing around the present participle and gerund of?
Playing around is the present participle and gerund of play around.

Words near playing around in the dictionary

  1. playing a rôle
  2. playing about
  3. playing against type
  4. playing all one's cards
  5. playing along
  6. playing around
  7. playing at
  8. playing away
  9. playing back
  10. playing ball
  11. playing big

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: playing around (page history and authors); play 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: “playing around.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/playing_around. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.