mucked around
Fooled around aimlessly
Mucked around is the past tense of muck around, meaning to waste time or behave aimlessly without accomplishing anything useful: We mucked around in the garage all afternoon.
It can also mean to tamper or interfere with something carelessly: Someone's mucked around with the settings.
More common in British than American English, where messed around is preferred.
- loafedWas deliberately unproductive
- toyedHandled without seriousness
- potterMaker of clay vessels
- fiddledToyed idly with
- wasted timeHours spent unproductively
killed time · dawdled · messed about · lounged · delayed · puttered about · tinkered · idled · dabbled · goofed off · stalled · postponed · chilled · faffed about · pissed about · meddled · frittered · monkey
purposefulness
mucked aroundbuckled down
Began working earnestly
got down to business · focused · worked hard · applied oneself · knuckled down