kick around

verb

kicked around; kicking around; kicks around

intransitive verb

1

: to wander or pass time aimlessly

2

a

: to lie about mostly unnoticed or forgotten

b

: to undergo consideration usually intermittently over a period of time

ideas that have been kicking around for years

transitive verb

1

: to treat in an inconsiderate or high-handed fashion

2

: to consider, examine, or discuss from various angles

Synonyms

• chew over
• cogitate
• consider
• contemplate
• debate
• deliberate
• entertain
• eye
• meditate
• mull (over)
• perpend
• ponder
• pore (over)
• question
• revolve
• ruminate
• study
• think (about or over)
• turn
• weigh
• wrestle (with)

Examples of kick around in a Sentence

the board spent the afternoon kicking around the feasibility of opening an overseas office

I really can't do much but kick around at work until I get the rest of the submissions.

Recent Examples on the Web

Early estimates kicking around the Hill suggest those provisions would massively outweigh possible increases in oil and gas production and exports. —Nick Sobczyk, Axios, 7 Aug. 2024

After this week’s Evil, The Manager won’t have Leland Townsend to kick around anymore. —Kimberly Roots, TVLine, 18 July 2024

There would be no more Biden to kick around anymore. —Sun Sentinel Editorial Board, Sun Sentinel, 7 July 2024

Dylan Hadfield-Menell, a professor at MIT who researches ways to align AI, says the idea of having AI models help train more powerful ones has been kicking around for a while. —Will Knight, WIRED, 27 June 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1839, in the meaning defined at intransitive sense 1