"arse around" meaning in English

See arse around in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Verb

Audio: En-au-arse around.ogg Forms: arses around [present, singular, third-person], arsing around [participle, present], arsed around [participle, past], arsed around [past]
Head templates: {{en-verb|*}} arse around (third-person singular simple present arses around, present participle arsing around, simple past and past participle arsed around)
  1. (intransitive, slang) To behave in a clownish, irresponsible or inefficient manner. Tags: intransitive, slang Synonyms: arse about

Inflected forms

Alternative forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "arses around",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "arsing around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "arsed around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "arsed around",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "arse around (third-person singular simple present arses around, present participle arsing around, simple past and past participle arsed around)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English phrasal verbs formed with \"around\"",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Quit arsing around and get to work!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 299:",
          "text": "Gob, he’s not as green as he’s cabbagelooking. Arsing around from one pub to another, leaving it to your honour, with old Giltrap’s dog and getting fed up by the ratepayers and corporators.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1944, Nevil Shute, chapter 2, in Pastoral, London: Pan Books, published 1964:",
          "text": "[…] up in London you arse around and go to the local and meet the boys and perhaps take in a flick, and then when you go to bed you find you’ve spent a quid and wonder where in hell it went and what you got for it.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 284:",
          "text": "It’s part of a whole lot of home-movie stuff I’ve just bought at Christie’s. Most of it’s too madly dull for words—you know, gay young things arsing around with no shame.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To behave in a clownish, irresponsible or inefficient manner."
      ],
      "id": "en-arse_around-en-verb-Oe2vxv0n",
      "links": [
        [
          "clownish",
          "clownish"
        ],
        [
          "irresponsible",
          "irresponsible"
        ],
        [
          "inefficient",
          "inefficient"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, slang) To behave in a clownish, irresponsible or inefficient manner."
      ],
      "synonyms": [
        {
          "word": "arse about"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-arse around.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/eb/En-au-arse_around.ogg/En-au-arse_around.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/En-au-arse_around.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "word": "arse around"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "arses around",
      "tags": [
        "present",
        "singular",
        "third-person"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "arsing around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "present"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "arsed around",
      "tags": [
        "participle",
        "past"
      ]
    },
    {
      "form": "arsed around",
      "tags": [
        "past"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {
        "1": "*"
      },
      "expansion": "arse around (third-person singular simple present arses around, present participle arsing around, simple past and past participle arsed around)",
      "name": "en-verb"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "verb",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English intransitive verbs",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English phrasal verbs",
        "English phrasal verbs formed with \"around\"",
        "English slang",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "English terms with usage examples",
        "English verbs",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "Quit arsing around and get to work!",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1922 February, James Joyce, “[Episode 12: Cyclops]”, in Ulysses, Paris: Shakespeare and Company, […], →OCLC, part II [Odyssey], page 299:",
          "text": "Gob, he’s not as green as he’s cabbagelooking. Arsing around from one pub to another, leaving it to your honour, with old Giltrap’s dog and getting fed up by the ratepayers and corporators.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1944, Nevil Shute, chapter 2, in Pastoral, London: Pan Books, published 1964:",
          "text": "[…] up in London you arse around and go to the local and meet the boys and perhaps take in a flick, and then when you go to bed you find you’ve spent a quid and wonder where in hell it went and what you got for it.",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1988, Alan Hollinghurst, chapter 12, in The Swimming-Pool Library, paperback edition, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN, page 284:",
          "text": "It’s part of a whole lot of home-movie stuff I’ve just bought at Christie’s. Most of it’s too madly dull for words—you know, gay young things arsing around with no shame.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "To behave in a clownish, irresponsible or inefficient manner."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "clownish",
          "clownish"
        ],
        [
          "irresponsible",
          "irresponsible"
        ],
        [
          "inefficient",
          "inefficient"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(intransitive, slang) To behave in a clownish, irresponsible or inefficient manner."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "intransitive",
        "slang"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "sounds": [
    {
      "audio": "En-au-arse around.ogg",
      "mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/eb/En-au-arse_around.ogg/En-au-arse_around.ogg.mp3",
      "ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/En-au-arse_around.ogg"
    }
  ],
  "synonyms": [
    {
      "word": "arse about"
    }
  ],
  "word": "arse around"
}

Download raw JSONL data for arse around meaning in English (2.6kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-11-06 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-10-02 using wiktextract (fbeafe8 and 7f03c9b). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

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