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 Fried Chicken Club salad doesn’t mess around either — crispy fried chicken crackling with every bite, tangled in mixed greens, smoky shards of bacon and bold blue cheese crumbles.

From Salon • May 19, 2025

“Y’all mess around and give yourselves heat stroke,” she’d said.

From "The Last Last-Day-of-Summer" by Lamar Giles