Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. to wander around.

1943

P. Larkin letter 25 Oct. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 81: Cecil [...] is no longer buggering about round here.

2. to mess about with; thus buggering about n.

1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 130: We’re buggered about, and taken over miles o’ground.
1939		(con. 1880–90s) S. O’Casey I Knock at the Door 225: If there was any more of this buggerin’ about with the good name of the throops he’d let the Lord Lieutenant know all the details.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 105: It wouldn’t be the Army if you weren’t buggered about.
1963		(con. 1944) L. Glassop Rats in New Guinea 166: I am not here to be laughed at, chaffed at and otherwise buggered about by the peasantry.
1974		‘P.B. Yuill’ Hazell Plays Solomon (1976) 88: Fred was being buggered about by his editor.
1999		Guardian Rev. 3 Sept. 18: Movies that got buggered about by internal studio politics.

3. to waste time, to stall, to be unhelpful; thus buggering about n.

1958		(con. 1940s) B. Behan Borstal Boy 335: Now, no buggering about.
1996		P. Temple Bad Debts (2012) [ebook] I buggered about, bought a drink, looked at the magazines, studied the engine additives .
2000		P. Temple Dead Point (2008) [ebook] It’s all that buggering around with carpentry. You don’t do enough law.
2007		S. Maloney Sucked In 155: Save the taxpayer the expense of further buggering around. Those forensic tests cost a poultice.
2010		L. Redhead Thrill City [ebook] I could bugger around for hours searching the hard way [...] but I didn’t have time.

4. to make someone’s life miserable or in some way difficult.

1921		N&Q 12 Ser. IX 379: A more expressive form is ‘To be b-ggered about,’ to be given unnecessary drill or manoeuvres.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 49: We’re just ’umped an’ bumped an’ buggered about all over fuckin’ France.
1943		P. Larkin letter 2 Jan. in Thwaite Sel. Letters (1992) 54: Well, if your New Year resolution is not to let any bugger bugger you about, mine is not to give a bugger for any bugger.
1959		G. Slatter Gun in My Hand 225: The band playing [...] to the tune of we won’t be buggered about about we won’t be buggered about but we were.
1967		J. Wynnum I’m a Jack, All Right 23: Now if you intend to bugger me about, give me back that dough.
1970		G.F. Newman Sir, You Bastard 202: You’re buggering me about.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 11: One can be [...] ‘buggered about’ (given a hard time by one’s mates or employer).
1999		Indep. on Sun. Rev. 20 June 30: Buggering about a woman’s life, smashing her hopes.
2000		M. Amis Experience 290: He felt ‘buggered about’ by the setters.