idle
/ˈʌɪd(ə)l
/adjective (idler, idlest)
1(Of a person) avoiding work; lazy: idle students...
- They always claim to work hard, but in truth they're nothing but lazy idle sluggards!
- The government hasn't done anything to help students, they are perceived as lazy and idle where they go to university to socialise, that's not the case.
- I also believed that children weren't lazy, idle, unmotivated, all the usual list of adjectives the oppressor puts on the oppressed.
Synonyms
lazy, indolent, slothful, work-shy, shiftless, loafing, inactive, inert, sluggish, lethargic, languorous, listless, torpid;
remiss, negligent, slack, lax, lackadaisical, impassive, good-for-nothing, do-nothing;
leisurely
informal bone idle
French archaic fainéant
rare otiose
1.1(Of a person) not working; unemployed: 10.3 per cent of the workforce is now idle...
- The most talented among them had been creamed off for local-government jobs, leaving the rest idle.
- While there has been a break in activities and a good rest the team have not been completely idle.
- As an early principal she was scarcely idle, and that was the way she wanted it.
Synonyms
unemployed, jobless, out of work, out of a job, redundant, between jobs, workless, unwaged, unoccupied
British informal on the dole, signing on, ‘resting’
Australian/New Zealand informal on the wallaby track
1.2(Especially of a machine or factory) not active or in use: the mill has been standing idle for eight years...
- But establishing aviation records was one thing - an idle factory was another.
- System Restore is a new feature that backs up vital system files when the machine is idle, by default taking a system snapshot every 10 hours.
- Factories are idle, and small shopkeepers have been squeezed out of business.
Synonyms
not in use, out of use, not operating, not working, inactive, out of action, inoperative, non-functioning, out of service, unused, unoccupied, unemployed;
disused, no longer in use, fallen into disuse, mothballed
1.3 [attributive] (Of time) characterized by inaction or absence of significant activity: at no time in the day must there be an idle moment...
- The other day, I was feeling around my mouth with my tongue in an idle moment.
- The girls act and react naturally playing volleyball, sometimes eating a mouth full of sand on missed dive returns or just stretching during idle moments.
- You would always remember Alami, and you would do the things that she might have spoken of in an idle moment, as every memory twisted in your heart.
Synonyms
unoccupied, spare, empty, vacant, unfilled, available
2Without purpose or effect; pointless: he did not want to waste valuable time in idle chatter...
- That was the whole purpose of the idle chatter, to keep the minds of the courtiers from overthrowing the dynasty.
- Many other females made him irritable because of their continuous idle chatter and senseless conversation.
- I guess I felt that my mind was shriveled up with idle chatter and shallow talk.
Synonyms
frivolous, trivial, trifling, minor, petty, foolish, lightweight, shallow, superficial, insignificant, unimportant, worthless, valueless, pointless, paltry, niggling, peripheral, without depth, inane, fatuous, senseless, meaningless, purposeless, unnecessary, time-wasting
2.1(Especially of a threat or boast) without foundation: I knew Ellen did not make idle threats...
- Recent suggestions that we'll see return of the stiletto has been dismissed by fashion critics as an idle threat from the catwalks in Europe and New York this year.
- Perhaps sensing that this was not an idle threat, the protests immediately tapered off.
- Barton's words were ‘potentially not just an idle threat’ and the Armed Response Unit went to see the defendant.
Synonyms
empty, meaningless, aimless, pointless, worthless, useless, vain, in vain, insubstantial, futile, ineffective, ineffectual;
groundless, without grounds, baseless, without/lacking foundation
3(Of money) held in cash or in accounts paying no interest.As treasurer of EMC, the data storage company, she puts a chunk of her company's idle cash into money funds nearly every day....
- Gold prices overseas have been rising as a large amount of idle money flowed into the gold markets worldwide due to the weak dollar.
- Only ultra-wealthy geeks like Allen, who have the interest and the idle cash, can afford to put millions at risk.
verb
1 [no object] Spend time doing nothing: four men were idling outside the shop [with object]: we idled the afternoon away...
- Every day, open-backed trucks enter the city packed with families and their possessions - refugees returning home from years spent idling in Pakistan and Iran.
- Having spent days idling in Shanghai, China's largest city, the players had never imagined the match would be so brutal and physical, especially in the second half.
- Actually, the movie is set in the hotels and clubs of contemporary Tokyo, as the characters spend much of their time idling while waiting to complete their singular obligations.
Synonyms
do nothing, be inactive, vegetate, sit back, take it easy, rest on one's oars, mark time, kick one's heels, twiddle one's thumbs, kill time, languish, laze (around/about), lounge (around/about), loll (around/about), loaf (around/about), slouch (around/about);
go to seed, degenerate, moulder, stagnate
informal hang around, veg out
British informal hang about, mooch about/around, slummock
North American informal bum around, bat around/about, lollygag, lay on one's oars
fritter, while, laze, loiter;
pass, spend, use, employ, use up, occupy, take up, fill up, fill in, fill, beguile, expend, devote, waste, dissipate, kill
1.1 [no object, with adverbial of direction] Move aimlessly or lazily: Robert idled along the pavement...
- Which is fine when we're idling along, watching the world change through Alexander's eyes, but makes the ending feel rushed, as if time was running out too quickly for anyone to think of anything better.
- The excruciatingly beautiful clockwork ballerina's not by the Tate, which, though tragic, merely leaves me still idling along with no goal.
- Booth's Steel were idling along in eighth spot at this time.
Synonyms
saunter, stroll, dawdle, drift, potter, amble, go/walk slowly, loiter, maunder, wander, straggle
informal mosey, tootle
British informal pootle, mooch, swan
North American informal putter
1.2 [with object] North American Take out of use or employment: he will close the newspaper, idling 2,200 workers...
- The owner of the Sago Mine, where 12 men died after an explosion last year, said Wednesday it has idled the coal operation because of high production costs and weak prices.
- The Tennessee Valley Authority said its Browns Ferry No.1 nuclear reactor in Athens was idled Saturday for continued testing following a 22-year shutdown.
- Russian secret service personnel, idled by the withering of Russia's global presence, resort to private business or are re-deployed by the state to spy on industrial and economic secrets in order to aid budding Russian multinationals.
2(Of an engine) run slowly while disconnected from a load or out of gear: Nadine kept the engine idling...
- A line of cars clogs the tree-lined street, engines idling in the sun.
- Anthony sighed, leaving the car engine idling.
- With that capability, a car's engine could be automatically shut off at stoplights, or any time the engine is idling for any length of time.
Synonyms
tick over, run slowly in neutral
2.1 [with object] Cause (an engine) to idle.He pulled up hard into the vertical and idled the engines, diminishing any heat source from the F - 22....
- Under the proposed bylaw, drivers would be fined $100 for idling their engines for more than three minutes.
Origin
Old English īdel 'empty, useless', of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch ijdel 'vain, frivolous, useless' and German eitel 'bare, worthless'.
Old English īdel included the sense ‘empty, useless’: it was often found in the combination idle yelp ‘boasting’. However, the sense ‘lazy’ or ‘with nothing to do’ was inherent in the original meanings of the word.