Adjacent Words

Idle definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

I'DLE, a.
1. Not employed; unoccupied with business; inactive; doing nothing.
Why stand ye here all the day idle? Matthew 20.
To be idle, is to be vicious.
2. Slothful; given to rest and ease; averse to labor or employment; lazy; as an idle man; an idle fellow.
3. Affording leisure; vacant; not occupied; as idle time; idle hours.
4. Remaining unused; unemployed; applied to things; as, my sword or spear is idle.
5. Useless; vain; ineffectual; as idle rage.
6. Unfruitful; barren; not productive of good.
Of antres vast and idle desarts.
Idle weeds.
7. Trifling; vain; of no importance; as an idle story; an idle reason; idle arguments.
8. Unprofitable; not tending to edification.
Every idle word that men shall speak,they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Matthew 12.
Idle differs from lazy; the latter implying constitutional or habitual aversion or indisposition to labor or action, sluggishness; whereas idle, in its proper sense, denotes merely unemployed. An industrious man may be idle, but he cannot be lazy.
I'DLE, v.i. To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business.
To idle away, in a transitive sense, to spend in idleness; as, to idle away time.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: not in action or at work; "an idle laborer"; "idle drifters"; "the idle rich"; "an idle mind" [ant: busy]
2: without a basis in reason or fact; "baseless gossip"; "the allegations proved groundless"; "idle fears"; "unfounded suspicions"; "unwarranted jealousy" [syn: baseless, groundless, idle, unfounded, unwarranted, wild]
3: not in active use; "the machinery sat idle during the strike"; "idle hands" [syn: idle, unused]
4: silly or trivial; "idle pleasure"; "light banter"; "light idle chatter" [syn: idle, light]
5: lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility; "idle talk"; "a loose tongue" [syn: idle, loose]
6: not yielding a return; "dead capital"; "idle funds" [syn: dead, idle]
7: not having a job; "idle carpenters"; "jobless transients"; "many people in the area were out of work" [syn: idle, jobless, out of work] n
1: the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling; "the car engine was running at idle" v
1: run disconnected or idle; "the engine is idling" [syn: idle, tick over] [ant: run]
2: be idle; exist in a changeless situation; "The old man sat and stagnated on his porch"; "He slugged in bed all morning" [syn: idle, laze, slug, stagnate] [ant: work]

Merriam Webster's

I. adjective (idler; idlest) Etymology: Middle English idel, from Old English ?del; akin to Old High German ?tal worthless Date: before 12th century 1. lacking worth or basis ; vain <idle chatter> <idle pleasure> 2. not occupied or employed: as a. having no employment ; inactive <idle workers> b. not turned to normal or appropriate use <idle funds> <idle farmland> c. not scheduled to compete <the team will be idle tomorrow> 3. a. shiftless, lazy b. having no evident lawful means of support Synonyms: see vain, inactive • idleness noun • idly adverb II. verb (idled; idling) Date: 1592 intransitive verb 1. a. to spend time in idleness b. to move idly 2. to run at low power and often disconnected usually so that power is not used for useful work <the engine is idling> transitive verb 1. to pass in idleness 2. to make idle <workers idled by a strike> 3. to cause to idle • idler noun Synonyms: idle, loaf, lounge, loll, laze mean to spend time doing nothing. idle may be used in reference to persons that move lazily or without purpose <idled the day away>. loaf suggests either resting or wandering about as though there were nothing to do <she does her work and then loafs the rest of the day>. lounge, though occasionally used as equal to idle or loaf, typically conveys an additional implication of resting or reclining against a support or of physical comfort and ease in relaxation <he lounged against the wall>. loll also carries an implication of a posture similar to that of lounge, but places greater stress upon an indolent or relaxed attitude <lolling on the couch>. laze usually implies the relaxation of a busy person enjoying a vacation or moments of leisure <lazed about between appointments>.

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. & v. --adj. (idler, idlest) 1 lazy, indolent. 2 not in use; not working; unemployed. 3 (of time etc.) unoccupied. 4 having no special basis or purpose (idle rumour; idle curiosity). 5 useless. 6 (of an action, thought, or word) ineffective, worthless, vain. --v. 1 a intr. (of an engine) run slowly without doing any work. b tr. cause (an engine) to idle. 2 intr. be idle. 3 tr. (foll. by away) pass (time etc.) in idleness. Phrases and idioms: idle wheel an intermediate wheel between two geared wheels, esp. to allow them to rotate in the same direction. Derivatives: idleness n. idly adv. Etymology: OE idel empty, useless

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Idle I"dle, a. [Compar. Idler; superl. Idlest.] [OE. idel, AS. [=i]del vain, empty, useless; akin to OS. [=i]dal, D. ijdel, OHG. [=i]tal vain, empty, mere, G. eitel, Dan. & Sw. idel mere, pure, and prob. to Gr. ? clear, pure, ? to burn. Cf. Ether.] 1. Of no account; useless; vain; trifling; unprofitable; thoughtless; silly; barren. ``Deserts idle.'' --Shak. Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment. --Matt. xii. 36. Down their idle weapons dropped. --Milton. This idle story became important. --Macaulay. 2. Not called into active service; not turned to appropriate use; unemployed; as, idle hours. The idle spear and shield were high uphing. --Milton. 3. Not employed; unoccupied with business; inactive; doing nothing; as, idle workmen. Why stand ye here all the day idle? --Matt. xx. 6. 4. Given rest and ease; averse to labor or employment; lazy; slothful; as, an idle fellow. 5. Light-headed; foolish. [Obs.] --Ford. Idle pulley (Mach.), a pulley that rests upon a belt to tighten it; a pulley that only guides a belt and is not used to transmit power. Idle wheel (Mach.), a gear wheel placed between two others, to transfer motion from one to the other without changing the direction of revolution. In idle, in vain. [Obs.] ``God saith, thou shalt not take the name of thy Lord God in idle.'' --Chaucer. Syn: Unoccupied; unemployed; vacant; inactive; indolent; sluggish; slothful; useless; ineffectual; futile; frivolous; vain; trifling; unprofitable; unimportant. Usage: Idle, Indolent, Lazy. A propensity to inaction is expressed by each of these words; they differ in the cause and degree of this characteristic. Indolent denotes an habitual love to ease, a settled dislike of movement or effort; idle is opposed to busy, and denotes a dislike of continuous exertion. Lazy is a stronger and more contemptuous term than indolent.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Idle I"dle, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Idled; p. pr. & vb. n. Idling.] To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business. --Shak.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Idle I"dle, v. t. To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume; -- often followed by away; as, to idle away an hour a day.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(idles, idling, idled) 1. If people who were working are idle, they have no jobs or work. Employees have been idle almost a month because of shortages. ADJ: v-link ADJ 2. If machines or factories are idle, they are not working or being used. Now the machine is lying idle. ADJ: v-link ADJ 3. If you say that someone is idle, you disapprove of them because they are not doing anything and you think they should be. ...idle bureaucrats who spent the day reading newspapers... ADJ [disapproval] • idleness Idleness is a very bad thing for human nature. N-UNCOUNT • idly We were not idly sitting around. ADV: ADV with v 4. Idle is used to describe something that you do for no particular reason, often because you have nothing better to do. Brian kept up the idle chatter for another five minutes. ADJ: ADJ n • idly We talked idly about magazines and baseball... ADV: ADV with v, ADV adj 5. You refer to an idle threat or boast when you do not think the person making it will or can do what they say. It was more of an idle threat than anything... = empty ADJ: ADJ n 6. To idle a factory or other place of work means to close it down because there is no work to do or because the workers are on strike. (AM BUSINESS; in BRIT, usually use shut down) ...idled assembly plants. VERB: V-ed, also V n 7. To idle workers means to stop them working. (AM BUSINESS; in BRIT, use lay off) The strike has idled about 55,000 machinists. VERB: V n 8. If an engine or vehicle is idling, the engine is running slowly and quietly because it is not in gear, and the vehicle is not moving. Beyond a stand of trees a small plane idled... VERB: V

Soule's Dictionary of English Synonyms

a. 1. Unemployed, unoccupied, unbusied, inactive. 2. Indolent, lazy, slothful, sluggish, inert. 3. Vacant, unused, leisure. 4. Useless, ineffectual, bootless, fruitless, unavailing, vain, futile, abortive. 5. Trifling, trivial, unimportant, trashy, foolish, unprofitable.

Foolish Dictionary

Useless. (See IDOLIZE)

Moby Thesaurus

abortive, absurd, airy, amble, ambling, asinine, asleep, at a standstill, at anchor, at leisure, at liberty, at loose ends, available, baseless, be a sideliner, be still, bootless, brogue, bum, bum around, catchpenny, cautious, circumspect, claudicant, claudicate, coast, contemplative, coquet, crawl, crawling, creep, creeping, creeping like snail, dabble, dally, dally away, dead-still, delay, deliberate, diddle, diddle away, disengaged, do nothing, do-nothing, dog it, dogtrot, dormant, drag, drag along, drag out, dribble away, drift, drivel away, drone, easy, empty, faineant, fallow, faltering, fatuitous, fatuous, fiddle, fiddle with, fiddle-faddle, fidget with, finger with, fixed, flagging, flimsy, flirt, fool, fool around, fool away, fool with, foolish, foot-dragging, free, fribble, fribbling, fritter away, frivol, frivolous, frothy, fruitless, fust, futile, gentle, go dead slow, go slow, goldbrick, goof off, gradual, groundless, halting, hang around, hang fire, hibernate, hobble, hobbled, hobbling, hollow, horse around, idle away, ill-founded, immobile, immotive, inactive, inane, inch, inch along, indolent, inert, insignificant, jerk off, jobless, jog-trot, kid around, kill, kill time, lackadaisical, laissez-aller, laissez-faire, lallygag, languid, languorous, laze, lazy, leisure, leisured, leisurely, lethargic, lie around, lie dormant, light, limp, limping, linger, listless, loaf, loafing, loiter, loiter about, loitering, loll, loll around, lollop around, lollygag, lounge, lounge around, lumbering, lumpen, mark time, meaningless, meditative, mess around, moderate, monkey, monkey around, mooch, mooch around, moon, moon around, mosey, motionless, moveless, muddle away, neuter, neutral, not budge, not stir, nugacious, nugatory, off, off duty, off work, open, otiose, out of commission, out of employ, out of harness, out of work, paralytic, paralyzed, passive, piddle, piss away, play, play around, play with, pointless, poke, poke along, poking, poky, potter, potter away, procrastinating, putter, quiescent, quiet, quietist, quietistic, redundant, relax, relaxed, reluctant, repose, rest, resting, retired, riding at anchor, saunter, sauntering, semiretired, senseless, shallow, shiftless, shuffle along, shuffling, silly, sit around, sit back, sit it out, slack, sleep, sleepy, slender, slight, slothful, slouch, slouch around, slow, slow as death, slow as molasses, slow as slow, slow-crawling, slow-foot, slow-going, slow-legged, slow-moving, slow-paced, slow-poky, slow-running, slow-sailing, slow-stepped, sluggish, slumber, smatter, smolder, snail-paced, snaillike, spare, stagger along, staggering, stagnant, stagnate, stagnating, stand around, standpat, static, stationary, statuelike, still, stock-still, stroll, strolling, superficial, take it easy, tarry, tentative, tinker, toddle, toddle along, toddling, tortoiselike, totter along, tottering, toy, toy with, traipse, trifle, trifle away, trifling, trite, trivial, trudging, turtlelike, twiddle, unavailing, unbased, unemployable, unemployed, unfounded, unfruitful, ungrounded, unhurried, unimportant, unmoved, unmoving, unoccupied, unproductive, unsupportable, unsupported, unsustainable, unsustained, untenable, unused, unwarranted, useless, vacuous, vain, vapid, vegetable, vegetate, vegetative, waddle, waddling, wait and see, walk, waste, watch and wait, while away, windy, without basis, without foundation, workless, worm, worm along, worthless