putz around

putz around (third-person singular simple present putzes around, present participle putzing around, simple past and past participle putzed around)

1. (slang, intransitive) To waste time.
   • 2002, Edward Lee, chapter 8, in Monstrosity, Abingdon, Md.: Cemetery Dance Publications, →ISBN, section II, page 181:

     Just shut up and get in the truck! You putz around worse than a ninety-year-old woman!

   • 2015 April 7, Kashmira Gander, “Michael Juskin: 100-year-old man ‘kills wife with axe in murder-suicide attack’”, in The Independent‎^[1], London: Independent News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 10 April 2015:

     “She used to be in her garden all the time,” [Barbara] Szczecina said. “They were always together, putzing around outside.”

   • 2019 September 7, Tammy La Gorce, “Two ‘Nice, Quiet’ Vacations Upended by the Dogs”, in The New York Times‎^[2], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 7 September 2019:

     “I was thinking, this will be a nice, quiet week to myself,” Mr. [William Howard] Critzman said. “I’ll can tomatoes and read and putz around.”

• “putz around” in Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Longman.
• “putz around” in McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs, Chicago, Ill.: The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., 2002, →ISBN; reproduced on Idioms and phrases, TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.
• “putz around” in Richard A. Spears, McGraw-Hill’s Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions, New York, N.Y..: McGraw-Hill, 2006, →ISBN; reproduced on Idioms and phrases, TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.
• “putz around” in Farlex Dictionary of Idioms, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2022; reproduced on Idioms and phrases, TheFreeDictionary.com, Huntingdon Valley, Pa.: Farlex, Inc., 2003–2025.