messing
v.v. behaving in a silly way or handling something carelessly. You use this when someone is playing with something they should not touch or being annoying on purpose.
v. behaving in a foolish, playful, or meddlesome manner. Often used with 'around' or 'with' to indicate a lack of seriousness or the improper handling of an object.
Stop messing with the remote control.
The children were messing around in the backyard instead of finishing their homework before dinner.
By messing with the delicate internal calibration of the sensor, the technician inadvertently compromised the integrity of the entire data set, necessitating a full system reset.
From the Old English personal name *Mæcca + -ing (“belonging to”).
Borrowed from German Messing (“brass”), a metonymic occupational surname for a brazier.
Often functions as part of a phrasal verb with 'around', 'about', or 'with'. When used with 'with', it is transitive and requires an object.
Stop to mess around.Stop messing around.The verb 'stop' is followed by the gerund (-ing form) when it means to cease an activity.