Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to dawdle, to mess around.

1932		(con. 1917–19) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 360: What the hell do they want to be fartin’ around here for?
1948		(con. 1944) N. Mailer Naked and Dead 23: The first wave’s still farting around.
1949		P. Larkin letter 24 Mar. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 152: I fart about at College, drink little, read rather too much, smoke hardly at all, & feel tired most of the time.
1951		S.H. Bell December Bride 184: So what’s the use of all this farting and fiddling around?
1955		J.P. Donleavy Ginger Man (1958) 120: I’m not up to farting about at this godforsaken hour of the morning.
1966		W. Wilson LBJ Brigade (1967) 66: Ya fart around this jount long enough un your hair rots.
1967		K. Amis letter 23 Oct. in Leader (2000) 9: Choose about 6 chaps and know them pretty thoroughly, rather than farting about with a bit of everyone.
1979		C. Dexter Service of all the Dead (1980) 160: Why fart around with all that piddling nonsense.
1986		L. Heinemann Paco’s Story (1987) 157: They’ll fuck around and fart around and grab-ass around.
1996		P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] You still farting around with that McKillop business?
1999		K. Sampson Powder 329: Wheezer was running the show, here, while Guy was farting round in alternative medicine.
2001		(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 184: Weeks of farting around, and now things are beginning to happen.

2. to irritate.

1986

F. Taylor Auf Wiedersehen Pet Two 197: I’m sorry if you lads have been farted around a bit.

(US) to dawdle, to proceed slowly.

1997–2002

Alt. Eng. Dict. 🌐 fart along (verb, intrans.) – to do something very slowly, without conviction. Like other terms using ‘fart’, this expression is almost neutral: ‘John just farts along writing his thesis.’ ‘That car in front of us holding up traffic is just farting along.’.

(Aus.) to be very angry.

1999

G. Seal Lingo 88: One who is farting sparks is very angry indeed, possibly even more so than someone spitting chips.

(US) to live prosperously, to feel happy, to be important.

1927		‘J.M. Hall’ Anecdota Americana I 181: She never farted through silk all her life.
c.1953		D. Hammett ‘Tulip’ Story Omnibus (1966) 242: I’m pretty well fixed right now, sweating through silk, as the boys used to say, only that isn’t exactly what they said.
1979		G. Wolff Duke of Deception (1990) 138: I sleep in a trailer, his wife farts through silk.
1991		P.J. O’Rourke Parliament of Whores 4: Vote for me, folks, and you’ll be farting through silk.
2001		J. Stahl Plainclothes Naked (2002) 185: We keep half this shit and sell the other half, we’re fartin’ in silk! We’ll be high and money!
2008		J. Lansdale Leather Maiden 129: ‘You thought you were going to end up farting through silk’.