futz

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Related to futzes: insomuch, coming along

futz

 (fŭts)
intr.v. futzed, futz·ing, futz·es Slang
1. To waste time or effort on frivolities; fool. Often used with around: "He used to look down on fellows like Shanley for studying so much, and for not drinking and dancing and futzing around the way he and Marty and Tim had" (James T. Farrell).
2. To fiddle, trifle, or tamper with something. Often used with with: Stop futzing with the camera and take the picture.

[Perhaps partial translation and alteration of Yiddish arumfartsn (zikh), to fart around : arum-, around + fartsn, to fart (from Middle High German varzen; see perd- in Indo-European roots).]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

futz

(fʌts)
vb (intr)
to waste time; to idle (often used in phrases such as futz around or futz about)
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

futz

(fʌts)
Slang. v.i.
1. to pass time in idleness (usu. fol. by around).
2. futz (around) with, to deal with tediously and nigglingly.
n.
3. a fool; simpleton.
[1930–35, Amer.]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in periodicals archive ?
She glances at the instructions and futzes around for a few minutes with the items, which to me now horridly look as if they'd been airdropped by extraterrestrial drones--she then fits them together just right!
Sandy's hand nervously futzes with the belt loop on my pants.