pal around

English

Etymology

pal +‎ around

Verb

pal around (third-person singular simple present pals around, present participle palling around, simple past and past participle palled around)

1. (intransitive, informal) To spend time with someone as a friend.

   Synonym: hang around

   John plans to pal around with Joe today.

2. (intransitive, informal, by extension) To associate with someone, especially secretly or when viewed as objectionable; to fraternize.
   • 2022 July 6, Laurie Roberts, “Independent voters, take note: Kari Lake still leads in latest poll of GOP governor's race”, in Yahoo! News‎^[1]:

     If independents do turn out, it’s hard to see them turning out en masse for Lake, whose campaign is fueled more by outrage and theatrics than by any suggestion that she's ready to run a fast growing state of 7.2 million people. She has endorsed candidates who show an appalling tendency to pal around with white nationalists.

   • 2022 November 3, Brianne Pfannenstiel, Tyler Jett, quoting Ross Wilburn, “Donald Trump teases Iowa crowd: 'I will very, very, very probably' run for president”, in Des Moines Register‎^[2]:

     “While Kim Reynolds and Chuck Grassley pal around with a defeated former president who continues to attack our democracy, Iowa Democrats are busy knocking doors, meeting Iowans where they are and mobilizing voters," Iowa Democratic Party Chair Ross Wilburn said in a statement.

   • 2022 December 16, Bill Goodykoontz, “Elon Musk can ban all the journalists he wants from Twitter. But he's a free-speech fraud”, in AZCentral‎^[3]:

     To be clear: Musk’s move is not a First Amendment issue, any more than it was when the previous regime suspended Donald Trump (among others). He has every right to ban whomever he wants. He has every right to bring Trump, along with whatever white supremacists and bigots and purveyors of hate speech and misinformation he wants to pal around with, back to Twitter.

   • 2023 April 10, Jennifer Bendery, quoting Sheldon Whitehouse, “Senate Democrats Urge John Roberts To Probe Clarence Thomas' Undisclosed Gifts”, in HuffPost‎^[4]:

     “This Supreme Court has lost its ethical compass,” Whitehouse, who chairs the Judiciary’s subcommittee on court oversight, said in a statement. “It’s no wonder that the American people are losing faith in the idea that they can get a fair shake before the nation’s highest court when they see a Supreme Court justice openly flouting basic disclosure rules in order to pal around with billionaires in secret.”

See also

• buddy-buddy