mess about

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mess about

mess around

verb:transitive:plus_adverb

(Britain)

all they do is mess me about, they won't give me a straight answer no hacen más que jugar conmigo, no me dan una respuesta concreta; they were messing me about so much over the dates that I told them to forget it me querían cambiar las fechas tantas veces que les dije que se olvidaran del asunto

I think they've been messed about far too much Davison had pulled out of a move to his old club because they had 'messed him about'

verb:intransitive:plus_adverb

(play the fool) hacer tonterías; (do nothing in particular) pasar el rato; gandulear; (waste time) perder el tiempo

"what are you doing?" — "just messing about" —¿qué haces? —nada, pasando el rato; we messed about in Paris for two days pasamos dos días en París haciendo esto y lo otro; he enjoys messing about in boats le gusta entretenerse con las barcas; she's not one to mess about, she gets on with the job no es de las que pierde el tiempo, saca el trabajo adelante; I don't want him messing about here no le quiero fisgoneando por aquí

stop messing about and ask her to marry you I thought she was just messing about, but she was serious it's more convenient than messing around with sterilizers

stop messing about! ¡déjate de tonterías!

to mess about with sb

he isn't the kind of guy you mess about with no es de los que se deja enredar or tomar el pelo

a live boa constrictor is not the sort of thing you mess around with

he messed about with some lads from college for a while salió con unos tíos de la universidad durante un tiempo; she'd been messing about with other men había estado liada con otros hombres (informal)

to mess about with sth

he was messing about with his watchstrap estaba jugueteando con la correa del reloj; who's been messing about with the video? ¿quién ha estado manoseando or toqueteando el vídeo?

they were messing about with a ball boys and girls will enjoy messing about with any kind of machine

Collins Complete Spanish Electronic Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers 2011