ABOUT – AROUND

Are often interchangeable

Meanings:

1. A lack of purpose or aim, or the idea of "not doing anything in particular”. ‘I din’t have anything special to do yesterday, so I just lay around watching TV’.

Lounge about, hang around, laze about, lie around, sit around, stand around

2. When used with verbs of motion (go, run…), around or about also include a lack of physical direction, implying circular motion, so that the idea is of random movement, without a purpose. ‘Whenever we go shopping, the kids start running around the mall'.

Walk around, order about, fool around, get around, go around, look around, play around, run around, shop around.

3. Other meanings: How do you go about opening a bank account?

Bring about, come about, go about, go on about, see about, set about