stop faffing around
stop fooling around and get something done
TRANSLATION
faff around = herummachen, herumbosseln, Zeit vertrödeln faff around = Zeit mit einer sinnlosen Beschäftigung vertrödeln --- GOOGLE INDEX faff around: approximately 150,000 Google hits
STATISTICS
IN THE PRESS
She defended Labour's actions in stopping the debate, saying the government was FAFFING AROUND and trying to appease its critics.
(BBC News)
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If you get a tyre puncture while on the road, it is often easier and quicker to simply replace the inner tube than FAFF AROUND trying to fix it.
(The Guardian)
(BBC News)
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If you get a tyre puncture while on the road, it is often easier and quicker to simply replace the inner tube than FAFF AROUND trying to fix it.
(The Guardian)
Did you
know?
faff around, faff about (informal, restricted to British English)
phrasal verb
- spend time in an ineffectual activity
(Oxford Dictionary)
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According to Michael Quinion's World Wide Words etymology site, the word faff appeared as a dialect term in Scotland and Northern England at the end of the 18th century as a description of the wind blowing in puffs or small gusts.
A North Yorkshire glossary of 1868 described how it was used: “As when a person blows chaff away from corn held in his hands, or the wind when it causes brief puffs of smoke to return down the chimney.”
It may have been imitative of the sound of gusty wind, or it may be a variation on maffle, a more widely distributed dialect term in Scotland and England that means to stutter or stammer, or to waste time and procrastinate. This might be from the old Dutch regional word maffelen, meaning to move the jaws. There’s also faffle, another dialect word, which also means to stammer or stutter, and which might have influenced the sense.
The word started to move into the wider language in its modern sense around the end of the nineteenth century, though it didn’t much appear in print until the 1980s.
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SYNONYMS
dally, dawdle, fart around, fiddle about, fool around, mess around, waste time
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SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"OK folks, let's stop faffing around and start the meeting."
phrasal verb
- spend time in an ineffectual activity
(Oxford Dictionary)
---
According to Michael Quinion's World Wide Words etymology site, the word faff appeared as a dialect term in Scotland and Northern England at the end of the 18th century as a description of the wind blowing in puffs or small gusts.
A North Yorkshire glossary of 1868 described how it was used: “As when a person blows chaff away from corn held in his hands, or the wind when it causes brief puffs of smoke to return down the chimney.”
It may have been imitative of the sound of gusty wind, or it may be a variation on maffle, a more widely distributed dialect term in Scotland and England that means to stutter or stammer, or to waste time and procrastinate. This might be from the old Dutch regional word maffelen, meaning to move the jaws. There’s also faffle, another dialect word, which also means to stammer or stutter, and which might have influenced the sense.
The word started to move into the wider language in its modern sense around the end of the nineteenth century, though it didn’t much appear in print until the 1980s.
---
SYNONYMS
dally, dawdle, fart around, fiddle about, fool around, mess around, waste time
---
SMUGGLE OWAD into today's conversation
"OK folks, let's stop faffing around and start the meeting."
