Green’s Dictionary of Slang

to act like a fool, to mess around.

1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 266: ‘What about your dad now?’ ‘Putzin’ on. He got married again.’.
1960		G. Swarthout Where the Boys Are 6: An airplane putzed past trailing a sign which read ‘Go, Man, Go to Pokey’s!’.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 141: The Fish was stone cold-blooded about collecting for damages [...] He didn’t putz around.
1978		T. O’Brien Going After Cacciato (1980) 152: His father liked to putz on Sunday [...] which meant tinkering and dreaming and touching things with his hands, fixing them or building them [etc.].
1988		Eble Campus Sl. Oct. 8: putz – waste time, procrastinate.
1990		(con. early 1950s) J. Ellroy L.A. Confidential 224: They’d putz around, make it as a big case, call Homicide.
2004		R.G. Barrett Rosa Marie’s Baby (2013) [ebook] After putzing around the house sorting out his washing and a few things [etc].