Dictionary

horse around en · VERB

Pronunciation

• (Australia) audio

Meanings

1. (idiomatic, intransitive) To engage in horseplay.
   • A novel about writing a novel; a narrator who is and is not the author; general metafictional horsing around reflecting both the author’s and reader’s ambivalence about the novel. 2015 January 14, Catherine O'Flynn, “10:04 by Ben Lerner review”, in The Guardian:
   • Can we quit horsing around and get some work done?
   • As Norah Jones coos sweet nothings on the soundtrack, the happy couple—played by Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler—canoodle through a Manhattan montage, making pasta for two, swimming through a pile of autumn leaves, and horsing around at a fruit stand. 2014 June 26, A. A. Dowd, “Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler Spoof Rom-com Clichés in They Came Together”, in The A.V. Club, archived from the original on 07 Dec 2017:
   • I told him that if I passed out before we got to a hospital I wanted him to see to it that no quack horsed around with my leg. 1943, Ted W. Lawson, Bob Considine, Thirty Seconds over Tokyo:
   • Stop horsing around with the controls, before you break something.
   • "Genghis Khan! Abe Lincoln! That’s funny until someone gets hurt." But Genghis Khan and Lincoln keep horsing around. 1989, Chris Matheson and Ed Solomon, Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure (script)

Forms

Relateds

horseplay

Synonyms

clown around (behave clownishly, idly) · fool around (behave clownishly, idly) · yuk it up (behave clownishly, idly) · muck about (behave clownishly, idly) · goof off (behave clownishly, idly) · muck around (behave clownishly, idly) · act out (behave clownishly, idly) · muck up (behave clownishly, idly)