be around

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be around (third-person singular simple present is around, present participle being around, simple past was around, past participle been around)

1. (idiomatic, intransitive, stative) To be alive, existent, or present.

   I'll be around for another hour or so.

   This restaurant has been around since 1938.

   • 1918, Booth Tarkington, chapter 34, in The Magnificent Ambersons:

     Well, sir, you remember this young Georgie sort of disappeared, after his grandfather's death, and nobody seemed to know much what had become of him—though I did hear, once or twice, that he was still around somewhere.

   • 2005 May 25, Ed Levine, “It's All in How the Dog Is Served”, in New York Times, retrieved 1 Jan. 2009:

     The New York-style hot dog I love has been around for well over a hundred years.

2. (idiomatic, transitive) To be near; to socialize with.

   You're fun to be around.

• When this expression has the sense of "to be alive" or "to be existent," it is often used with still.
• The related form to have been around can have a distinctly different meaning.

• have been around

• Euroband, abounder