Phrasal verb
fart around
Definition
phrasal verb. to waste time doing silly or unimportant things when you should be working.
phrasal verb. to behave in a frivolous or unproductive manner; to waste time on trivialities. Marked as informal and mildly vulgar in some dialects.
Examples
“Stop farting around and finish your homework.”
“We spent the whole afternoon farting around in the garage instead of actually fixing the car.”
“While the management team continued to fart around with minor aesthetic details, the core infrastructure of the project began to collapse under its own weight.”
Examples
simple
“Stop farting around and finish your homework.”
contextual
“We spent the whole afternoon farting around in the garage instead of actually fixing the car.”
complex
“While the management team continued to fart around with minor aesthetic details, the core infrastructure of the project began to collapse under its own weight.”
Usage
highly informal and can be considered slightly rude; use only with friends or in very casual settings.
Teaching tip
use this to teach the 'around' particle's function of indicating aimless or unproductive activity, similar to 'mess around' or 'fool around'.
Pitfall
He is farting around of the office.
He is farting around the office.
the phrase does not require 'of' when used with a location; it functions as an intransitive verb or with a prepositional place.
Phrasal verb
Particles
around
Separability
inseparable
Pattern
fart + around
Synonyms
Antonyms
Grammar
Scan code
englishreference.com/q/fart-around