fanny about

present singular third person fannies about · participle present fannying about · participle past fannied about · past fannied about · alternative fanny around

1. UKintransitiveslangTo waste time or fool around; to engage in activity which produces little or no accomplishment.

   Then he dithered and fannied about.

   1977, Jon Fleming et al., Soldiers on Everest, Her Majesty's Stationery Office, page 97

   2 more examples

   Johnson waited for an age while the barmen tossed bottles back and forth, poured luminous liquids into glasses from great heights, and fannied about with fruit and frivolities.

   2007, Philip Bryer, None of Your Business, →ISBN, page 151

   Obviously, I smirk watching this chaos unfold, from my lofty moral vantage as a woman checking Twitter dozens of times a day, a woman who often presents her husband with meals consisting of fridge remnants as I'm too busy fannying about on the internet to cook or shop.

   2011 July 8, Grace Dent, The Guardian

   Synonyms: faff around, bum around, putter, fart around, beat the meat

2. UKintransitiveslangtransitiveTo wander about or prowl around.

   ... the mechanic who tidied up after the Krays, took care of business while the Twins were fannying around the clubland circuit.

   2001, Iain Sinclair, Landor's Tower, →ISBN, page 287

   1 more example

   Out of all the random cities one gets to fanny about in Europe, all my flings are descending onto Luxembourg like a plague of horny man-teens.

   2009 May 27, Lucy Hunt, “No more broken hearts?”, in iafrica.com, retrieved 08 Sep 2009

   Synonyms: bum around