tool around

tool around

1. To wander around (some place) aimlessly or idly, doing nothing in particular. We had a few hours to kill before we had to catch our train, so we just tooled around downtown for a while. The scenic boardwalk is a great place to tool around if you have some spare time on your hands.
2. To drive around (some place) in one's car with no purpose, direction, or end point in mind. I remember spending hours when we were teenagers just tooling around in our parents' cars or the crappy rust buckets our friends had saved up to buy. I love tooling around the countryside in my new roadster.
See also: around, tool
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

tool around (in something)

to go around in a car; to speed around in a car. Who is that kid tooling around in that souped-up car? Ann spends a lot of time tooling around in her new car.
See also: around, tool
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

tool around

in. to drive or cruise around. (see also tool.) We tooled around for a while and then rented a horror movie.
See also: around, tool
McGraw-Hill's Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions
See also:
  • gallivant around
  • gaze around
  • get (someone) around the table
  • get around the table
  • find way around
  • build around
  • build around (someone or something)
  • around (one's) ears
  • bomb around
  • go around and around
References in periodicals archive
While his speech has pretty much returned, he needs a cane to tool around the monastery.
Drawing on faith: a friend's scribbled crosses illustrate the difficult road to Easter hope
Place the wire in the slot in the tool and place the teeth of the tool against the post, pull as tight as you can, then pull on the handle to turn the tool around the post like two teeth in a pair of gears running against each other, but those teeth on the tool will dig into the wood of the post to give it grip to pull the wire tight.
November what is it?: Fence-building finishing tool operation explained
Amazingly, John Stockwell knows: Just add water.Stockwell's Into the Blue is the most improbable of movies, a comic thriller set in the Bahamas in which Walker and Alba bare enough flesh to seduce us into thinking they've bared pieces of their souls.They play a couple who gets paid to tool around in the ocean.
Into the Blue
Users only need to download and install the newest version of WinRAR to continue using the best compression tool around. No complicated uninstalling of the previous version is necessary.
WINRAR 3.50 BETA 1 RELEASED
Unfortunately, it requires that I sit cross-legged on the cold ground to work the clumsy tool around the bottom strand, flush with the turf.
Why Kansas?
Quarters is the most effective tool around to hold the entire chain of command accountable for the daily routine.
News from the Command Master Chief
Plus if you leave the hard work up to us, it will free up some time for you to tool around the theme parks.
Products parade: here's a cheat sheet of some new products debuting at the 2005 International Builders' Show
Watching people tool around in buggies is worth a weekend trip only when one knows little other than cars.
The simplest life: why Americans romanticize the Amish
If you're not up for the entire Slickrock, go out and tool around on the 2.5-mile practice circuit.
The Slickrock trail: so much for club sports. In Moab, Utah's mountain-biking mecca, CEOs come to 'shred.'
Other benefits of video games for physicians: "Tiger Woods PGA Tour Golf" is great practice in advance of your Saturday morning tee time, and you can pick the sports car of your choice to tool around in with "Gran Turismo."
But I'm training to be a surgeon
After some practicing, programming and adjustments, they gave the man the keys to a Mustang and let him tool around the parking lot.
Digital technology essential and subversive
We're still commercial-free and we provide children with the best teaching tool around.
Hot seat
As the man behind the animated tales of Shakespeare that are now used as an educational tool around the world, Mr Grace told the audience about some of the feedback he had received from schools after being involved in the scheme.
EducationWales: `O this learning, what a thing it is' in Wales
The 189 member states of the United Nations General Assembly met June 25-27, 2001, and unanimously approved a document that can be an important tool around the world for urging governments and others to take responsibility for helping to control the global epidemic.
United Nations AIDS Meeting
"That's when my wife, Betsey, and I were busy cooking a lot and decided there wasn't a decent kitchen tool around that was comfortable," he recalled.
FARBERS TEAM WITH COPCO TO LAUNCH WOVO SERVEWARE