From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishplay around (also play about British English) phrasal verb1 SEX/HAVE SEX WITHto have a sexual relationship with someone who is not your usual partner with Wasn’t she playing around with another man? It was years before I realized he’d been playing around.2 to try doing something in different ways, to see what would be best, especially when this is fun with Play around with the ingredients if you like.3 to behave in a silly way or waste time, when you should be doing something more serious SYN fool around When the teacher wasn’t looking, we used to play about a lot. → play→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
play with• Why were men able to play around with any sort of drab?• He played around with both boys and girls and he was capable of uncontrolled violence.• But generally they enjoy themselves and they play around with inventions and machines like nobody's business.• But Uncle liked to play around with it.• It is bad to play around with other people's wives and bad also to spy on President Amin.• She encourages customers to play around with samples so they feel they are helping to design their own rooms.• This can be corrected either in Photoshop or by simply playing around with the white balance.• But it wasn't really such a leap from paintings of riders to pictures of top-hatted toffs playing around with tousled tarts.play with• Why were men able to play around with any sort of drab?• He played around with both boys and girls and he was capable of uncontrolled violence.• But generally they enjoy themselves and they play around with inventions and machines like nobody's business.• But Uncle liked to play around with it.• It is bad to play around with other people's wives and bad also to spy on President Amin.• She encourages customers to play around with samples so they feel they are helping to design their own rooms.• This can be corrected either in Photoshop or by simply playing around with the white balance.• But it wasn't really such a leap from paintings of riders to pictures of top-hatted toffs playing around with tousled tarts. 