Verb
putter about (third-person singular simple present putters about, present participle puttering about, simple past and past participle puttered about)
(intransitive) To be engaged in meaningless activity.
It must be admitted that science has its castes. The man whose chief apparatus is the differential equation looks down upon one who uses a galvanometer, and he in turn upon those who putter about with sticky and smelly things in test tubes. Gilbert N. Lewis