mess around

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Those Creoles don’t mess around with their potato salad.

From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 13, 2026

"Alan makes a good point about how everyone wants to mess around on the ball these days," Sutton explained.

From BBC • Nov. 13, 2025

“We have an ironclad rule at IMAX, which is that our word is our word and we won’t mess around with that,” the CEO said.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 7, 2025

The real matcha farmers don’t mess around, and they definitely don’t cut corners.

From Salon • Jul. 31, 2025

They had peeled back the shirt and the arm was whitely soft where they had cleaned it and there was a mess around the shoulder.

From "The Killer Angels: The Classic Novel of the Civil War" by Michael Shaara