i´dle|ness

i|dle «Y duhl», adjective, i|dler, i|dlest, verb, i|dled, i|dling.

–adj.

1. doing nothing; not busy; not working; unoccupied; unemployed: »

idle hands, idle machines, idle hours of a holiday. Give me some help; don't just stand there idle.

2. not willing to do things; fond of doing nothing; lazy: »

The idle boy would not study.

3. having no real worth, use, or significance; useless; worthless: »

to waste time in idle pleasure. It is idle for a girl to wish to be a boy.

SYNONYM(S): ineffective, vain, frivolous.

4. without any good reason, cause, or foundation: »

idle fears. Stop worrying about idle rumors.

–v.i.

1. to be idle; do nothing: »

Are you going to spend your whole vacation just idling?

2. to move or saunter idly: »

Presently a vagrant poodle came idling along…lazy with the summer softness (Mark Twain).

3. to run slowly without transmitting power. A motor idles when it is out of gear and running slowly.

–v.t.

1. to spend or waste (time): »

She idled away many hours lying in the hammock.

2. to cause (a person or thing) to be idle; take out of work or use: »

Day shift workers refused to cross the picket lines, idling some 2,200 (Wall Street Journal).

╂[Old English īdel]

–i´dle|ness, noun.

Synonym Study adjective. 1, 2 Idle, lazy, indolent mean not active or working. Idle means not busy or working at the moment, and often implies no blame: »

They like to be idle on Sundays. The long drought made many farmworkers idle.

Lazy regularly implies blame, for it means not liking to work, and not industrious when at work: »

Lazy people are seldom successful.

Indolent means by nature or habit fond of ease and opposed to work or activity: »

Too much idleness sometimes makes one indolent.