faff about
phrasal verb.phrasal verb. to spend time doing things that are not important or to take a long time to do something simple.
phrasal verb. to engage in unproductive, disorganized, or trivial activity; often implies a lack of focus or unnecessary delay in completing a task.
Stop faffing about and put your shoes on.
We spent the whole morning faffing about with the printer instead of finishing the report.
While the committee faffed about with minor administrative details, the actual deadline for the project passed unnoticed.
- mess around
- dither
- waste time
- procrastinate
- get on with it
- focus
- hurry up
- Particles
- about
- Separability
- inseparable
- Pattern
- faff + about
usually used when the speaker is frustrated by someone's lack of efficiency.
this is a quintessentially British expression; use it to teach students how to express mild annoyance at procrastination or disorganization.
He was faffing about the room.He was faffing about.when used to mean wasting time, 'about' is a particle, not a preposition requiring a physical location.
Last updated April 24, 2026