futz

Also found in: Idioms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.

futz

(fŭts)

intr.v. futzed, futz·ing, futz·es Slang

1. To waste time or effort on frivolities; fool. Often used with around: "He used to look down on fellows like Shanley for studying so much, and for not drinking and dancing and futzing around the way he and Marty and Tim had" (James T. Farrell).

2. To fiddle, trifle, or tamper with something. Often used with with: Stop futzing with the camera and take the picture.

[Perhaps partial translation and alteration of Yiddish arumfartsn (zikh), to fart around : arum-, around + fartsn, to fart (from Middle High German varzen; see perd- in Indo-European roots).]

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

futz

(fʌts)

vb (intr)

to waste time; to idle (often used in phrases such as futz around or futz about)

Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

futz

(fʌts)
Slang. v.i.

1. to pass time in idleness (usu. fol. by around).

2. futz (around) with, to deal with tediously and nigglingly.

3. a fool; simpleton.

[1930–35, Amer.]

References in periodicals archive ?

"Developers want to maintain their listing prices and then futz with the numbers behind the scenes," said Paul Johansen, an associate broker with CORE Real Estate.

Brooklyn's luxury developers feel the blues

And yet opponents of the JCPOA, who typically depict Iran as being far less trustworthy than the United States, futz over the sunset clauses in that text as if they represent a major problem that will make the difference between Iran having and not having a nuclear weapon a decade from now.

Iran and the nuclear sunset clauses

* Futz Hendricks, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and Todd Schoellman, Arizona State University, "Human Capital and Development Accounting: New Evidence from Wage Gains at Migration"

Economic growth

But the game-changer was Owens's remarkable play Futz, which she wrote in 1958 at the age of 23, and which finally premiered at La MaMa Experimental Theatre Club on March 2, 1967, under the stewardship of the legendary avant-garde producer Ellen Stewart.

Interview with Rochelle Owens

You immediately wipe the slate clean and push the mound of pieces into the center of the table, where with the tension in the room you begin to futz with them again.

News of the Week

Some pilots like a lot of small, zippered compartments; others consider them just more zippers to futz with while trying to find the airplane keys.

Pilot flight bags: a tote for every purpose

Setting aside that the tricky job Fallon is tackling is also unspeakably meaningless--really, who wouldn't rather futz around online nowadays than zonk out to late-night TV?--I wish him well.

Johnny who? Here's Jimmy Fallon, the first late-night host too young to have worshipped Carson

I fell in love with Buzzi during our first meeting when she sat down at a little electric piano to sing her original operatic duet, "Don't Futz Around." We fought the NBC censor to permit her to perform it (with Johnson)--and won.

Look that up in your funk and wagnalls!

And why not buy a tool that's lighter and cheaper, and never have to futz with chargers?

I my corded screw gun

In I Miss You Every Day, based on Woody Guthrie's "Mail Myself to You" (Guthrie's estate wouldn't give Taback permission to futz with the lyrics, so he wrote his own), Taback finds the sweetly minor-key, melancholy tone of a klezmer violin.