Idle
['aɪd(ə)l] or ['aɪdl]
Definition
(noun.) the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling; 'the car engine was running at idle'.
(verb.) run disconnected or idle; 'the engine is idling'.
(verb.) be idle; exist in a changeless situation; 'The old man sat and stagnated on his porch'; 'He slugged in bed all morning'.
(adj.) not in active use; 'the machinery sat idle during the strike'; 'idle hands' .
(adj.) not in action or at work; 'an idle laborer'; 'idle drifters'; 'the idle rich'; 'an idle mind' .
(adj.) not having a job; 'idle carpenters'; 'jobless transients'; 'many people in the area were out of work' .
(adj.) lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility; 'idle talk'; 'a loose tongue' .
(adj.) silly or trivial; 'idle pleasure'; 'light banter'; 'light idle chatter' .
Typist: Wesley--From WordNet
Definition
(superl.) Of no account; useless; vain; trifling; unprofitable; thoughtless; silly; barren.
(superl.) Not called into active service; not turned to appropriate use; unemployed; as, idle hours.
(superl.) Not employed; unoccupied with business; inactive; doing nothing; as, idle workmen.
(superl.) Given rest and ease; averse to labor or employment; lazy; slothful; as, an idle fellow.
(superl.) Light-headed; foolish.
(v. i.) To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business.
(v. t.) To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume; -- often followed by away; as, to idle away an hour a day.
Typed by Justine
Synonyms and Synonymous
a. [1]. Unemployed, unoccupied, unbusied, inactive.[2]. Indolent, lazy, slothful, sluggish, inert.[3]. Vacant, unused.[4]. Useless, ineffectual, bootless, fruitless, unavailing, vain, futile, abortive.[5]. Trifling, trivial, unimportant, trashy, foolish, unprofitable.
Inputed by Armand
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Void, unoccupied, waste, vain, empty, unemployed, useless, inactive, lazy,indolent
ANT:Tilled, occupied, populated, filled, employed, assiduous, industrious
Edited by Elena
Definition
adj. vain: trifling: unemployed: averse to labour: not occupied: useless: unimportant: unedifying.—v.t. to spend in idleness.—v.i. to be idle or unoccupied.—adj. I′dle-head′ed foolish.—ns. I′dlehood I′dleness; I′dler; Id′lesse idleness; I′dle-wheel a wheel placed between two others simply for transferring the motion from one to the other without changing the direction.—n.pl. I′dle-worms once jocularly supposed to be bred in the fingers of lazy maid-servants.—adv. I′dly.
Typist: Wolfgang
Unserious Contents or Definition
If you dream of being idle, you will fail to accomplish your designs. To see your friends in idleness, you will hear of some trouble affecting them. For a young woman to dream that she is leading an idle existence, she will fall into bad habits, and is likely to marry a shiftless man.
Typed by Denis
Unserious Contents or Definition
Useless.
Checked by Eugene
Examples
- You that should be models of industry are just as gossip-loving as the idle. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- But now, at hunting and hawking, and each idle sport of wood and river, who so prompt as the Templars in all these fond vanities? Walter Scott. Ivanhoe.
- Vain, ignorant, idle, and absolutely uncontrolled! Jane Austen. Pride and Prejudice.
- When are you idle? Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I am at present responsible for his life; it shall not be forfeited for half an hour's idle gossip. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- Who was the poet who said that Satan finds some mischief still for idle hands to do? Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- Had there been presses, they would have had to stand idle while the papyrus rolls were slowly made. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
- You cannot seriously wish me to stay idling at home all day? Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- He has been idling all this term, and he must look forward with dread to the examination. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Neglect it--go on as heretofore, craving, whining, and idling--and suffer the results of your idiocy, however bad and insuperable they may be. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- Don't your horses want feeding, or your reddlebags want mending, or don't you want to find buyers for your goods, that you stay idling here like this? Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- That is a very foolish trick, Fanny, to be idling away all the evening upon a sofa. Jane Austen. Mansfield Park.
- It-can't-be, muttered Sydney Carton, retrospectively, and idling his glass (which fortunately was a small one) again. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- Strange that such a piece of idling should have seemed an important errand. Thomas Hardy. The Return of the Native.
- Today we have idled through a wonder of a garden attached to a ducal estate--but enough of description is enough, I judge. Mark Twain. The Innocents Abroad.
- She had often idled over the instrument in this way, when I was staying at her mother's house. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- He knew that he idled and moped. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
Typist: Ollie