muck about?

[sky753]

Hello Everyone,

Muck in Longman is defined as to behave in a silly way, especially when you should be working or paying attention to something

Two examples are given under the definition.
1. Stop mucking about and listen!
The first muck likely means the students in the class is doing or talking about something unrelated to the class, which is interfering with the other students?
2.Some of the boys were mucking around on bikes.
The second muck likely means the boys were riding their bikes without their hands holding the handles or riding fighting like cat and dogs or something like that?

Regards

Sky

[Tdol]

1 They are making too much noise or otherwise distracting the other students.
2 Yes, or just riding around for fun rather than going for a long hard trip.

[vil]

I’m not a teacher

Hi sky753,

There are a few words in maintenance of your statements:

muck about = to spend time idly; putter

putter = to occupy oneself in an aimless or ineffective manner

muck around = to waste time instead of doing something useful or important ( informal ); loiter ; monkey around

We'd get this job finished sooner if you two stopped mucking around.

muck up = to harm irreparably through inept handling; make a mess: mishandle, mismanage
mishandle = to deal with clumsily or inefficiently; mismanage

Regards,

V.

[sky753]

many thanks!

[Raymott]

Originally Posted by vil

I’m not a teacher

Hi sky753,

There are a few words in maintenance of your statements:

muck about = to spend time idly; putter

putter = to occupy oneself in an aimless or ineffective manner

muck around = to waste time instead of doing something useful or important ( informal ); loiter ; monkey around

We'd get this job finished sooner if you two stopped mucking around.

muck up = to harm irreparably through inept handling; make a mess: mishandle, mismanage
mishandle = to deal with clumsily or inefficiently; mismanage

Regards,

V.

Which leads to the punning joke which I feel obliged to pass onto you Vil.
Q: What's the difference between a goldfish and a mountain goat?
A: A goldfish likes mucking about in fountains.


If it's not obvious, you must swap the m and f for mountain goats.