15 Phrasal Verbs with ABOUT

15 Phrasal Verbs with ABOUT (Meanings & Examples)

Hello, English learners 👋 Welcome to today’s lesson! In this post, we’ll explore 15 common phrasal verbs with about — a small word that appears in a lot of everyday English.

Phrasal verbs with about are often used to talk about:

movement without a clear plan
wasting time or waiting
how something happens
casual or unstructured activity

These verbs are very common in spoken English, but they also appear in Cambridge exams (B2 First & C1 Advanced), especially in reading, listening, and Use of English tasks.

Let’s take a closer look.

Come about

Meaning: to happen or occur, often unexpectedly or without planning.

How did this situation come about?
The idea for the project came about during a casual conversation.
The opportunity came about completely by chance.

Fall about

Meaning: to laugh uncontrollably.

Everyone fell about laughing at his story.
We fell about when we saw the video.
The audience fell about with laughter.

Fiddle about

Meaning: to waste time doing small, unimportant things instead of something useful.

Stop fiddling about and get on with your work.
He spent hours fiddling about with his phone.
She was fiddling about instead of revising.

Gad about

Meaning: to travel or move around in a carefree way, often for pleasure.

They spent the summer gadding about Europe.
He loves gadding about town at weekends.
Instead of studying, she was gadding about with friends.

Get about

Meaning: to move around or travel; to be mobile.

Despite his age, he still gets about quite well.
She gets about a lot for work.
After the operation, it took weeks before he could get about properly.

Go about

Meaning: to start or continue doing something in a particular way.

She went about her work calmly and professionally.
How should we go about solving this problem?
He went about his daily routine as usual.

Hang about

Meaning: to stay somewhere with no clear purpose; to wait casually.

They were hanging about outside the shop.
Stop hanging about and come inside.
He often hangs about the café after work.

Knock about

Meaning 1: to move around casually or without a plan.

They spent months knocking about Asia.

Meaning 2: to be treated roughly.

The suitcase had been knocked about during the flight.

Lie about

Meaning: to spend time doing nothing; to be inactive.

I just want to lie about all weekend.
They were lying about the house all day.
After the exam, he lay about watching TV.

Moon about

Meaning: to spend time doing nothing, often feeling dreamy or sad.

He was mooning about instead of studying.
She spent days mooning about after the breakup.
Stop mooning about and focus.

Put about

Meaning: to spread information or rumours.

False rumours were put about online.
Someone put it about that the company was closing.
The story was quickly put about among students.

Rush about

Meaning: to move around quickly and busily, often because you are stressed.

She was rushing about trying to get ready.
I hate rushing about in the mornings.
Everyone was rushing about before the meeting.

See about

Meaning: to take action or make arrangements.

I’ll see about booking the tickets.
He needs to see about repairing the roof.
She went to see about a new job.

Sit about

Meaning: to spend time sitting and doing very little.

They sat about chatting all afternoon.
The children were sitting about, bored.
He sat about waiting for instructions.

Wait about

Meaning: to wait idly, often with nothing to do.

We were waiting about for the bus.
The students were waiting about outside the classroom.
I don’t like waiting about with no information.

Learning tip

Many of these verbs describe aimless or unstructured activity — a common theme with about. Try grouping them by meaning rather than memorising them as a list.

Published by My Lingua Academy on 25 Dec 202425 Dec 2024