After my bout with Guillan-Barre Syndrome, it took me 6 months to be up and about again.

This idea has been about for a while but has only recently become fashionable.

To my mind, transportation engineering is similar to flying in the 1930s — it has been about for some time but it has taken the present economic jolt to shake it out of its infancy, in the same way that the war started the development of flying to its current stage.

Although it has been about for some time now, I like the typeface Sauna.

2006, Great Britain Parliament: House of Lords Science and Technology Committee, Energy: Meeting With Malcolm Wicks MP,
Is not this sudden interest in capturing CO₂ — and it has been about for a little while — simply another hidey-hole for the government to creep into?

I had my keys just a minute ago, so they must be about somewhere.

I looked about at the scenery that surrounded me.

Why, then, I see, ‘tis time to look about, / When every boy Alphonsus dares control.

walking about;  rushing about;  jumping about;  thrashing about

1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, 1 Timothy, v,13,
And withal they learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not.

messing about;  fooling about;  loafing about

It's about as cold as it was last winter.

1769, King James Bible, Oxford Standard text, Matthew, xx, 3,
And he went out about the third hour, and saw others standing idle in the marketplace

Behold, to morrow about this time I will cause it to rain a very grievous hail, such as hath not been in Egypt since the foundation thereof even until now.

And the children of Levi did according to the word of Moses: and there fell of the people that day about three thousand men.

I told him about everything I could think of; and what I couldn't think of he did. He asked about six questions during my yarn, but every question had a point to it. At the end he bowed and thanked me once more. As a thanker he was main-truck high; I never see anybody so polite.

[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria, […].

Mr. Carter, whose back had been turned, turned about and faced his niece.

When he had finished, he drew his plaid around his head, and went slowly down to the little dell, where he used every day to offer up his morning and evening prayers, and where we have often sat together on Sabbath afternoons, reading verse about with our children in the Bible.

a mile about, and a third of a mile across

Nothing daunted, the fleet put to sea, and after sailing about the island for some time, a landing was effected in the west of Munster.

Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart:

The desert storm was riding in its strength; the travellers lay beneath the mastery of the fell simoom. […] Roaring, leaping, pouncing, the tempest raged about the wanderers, drowning and blotting out their forms with sandy spume.

The children were running about the room.

I already have made way / To some Philistian lords, with whom to treat / About thy ransom.

"I'll tell you what, Fanny: she must have her way about Sarah Thompson. You can see her to-morrow and tell her so."

Private-equity nabobs bristle at being dubbed mere financiers. Piling debt onto companies’ balance-sheets is only a small part of what leveraged buy-outs are about, they insist. Improving the workings of the businesses they take over is just as core to their calling, if not more so. Much of their pleading is public-relations bluster.

Well, let’s not talk about yesterday.
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And he said unto them, How is it that ye sought me? wist ye not that I must be about my Father's business?

RON: And I'll have the number 8.
WAITER: That's a party platter, it serves 12 people.
RON: I know what I'm about, son.

(Chester) Have you much hay about? = Have you much in the process of making?

(Chester) "What's Mary doin'?" "Oh ! oo's about th' butter." = "What's Mary doing?" "Oh, she's making the butter.

I can't find my reading glasses, but they must be somewhere about the house.

John's in the garden, probably somewhere about the woodshed.

There was an air of confidence about the woman.

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