idle — OET · Shobdo

idle

adjective

1 an idle fellow:

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.

▷antonyms industrious.

2 ‘I was getting bored with being idle,’ she told her new employer:

unemployed, jobless, out of work, out of a job, between jobs, workless, unwaged, unoccupied;

British redundant;

British, informal on the dole, signing on;

British, euphemistic resting;

Australian, New Zealand, informal on the wallaby track.

▷antonyms employed.

3 instead of leaving the machine idle, I sold it:

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.

▷antonyms working.

4 they filled their idle hours with endless gossiping sessions:

unoccupied, spare, empty, vacant, unfilled, available.

▷antonyms busy; full.

5 he didn't indulge in idle remarks or mere social chit-chat:

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.

▷antonyms serious; meaningful.

6 she was not a woman to make idle threats:

empty, meaningless, aimless, pointless, worthless, useless, vain, in vain, insubstantial, futile, ineffective, ineffectual;

groundless, without grounds, baseless, without/lacking foundation.

▷antonyms serious.

verb

1 Lily idled on the window seat: she hated Sundays:

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 (about), laze (around), lounge (about), lounge (around), loll (about), loll (around), loaf (about), loaf (around), slouch (about), slouch (around);

go to seed, degenerate, moulder, stagnate;

informal hang around, hang about, veg out;

British, informal mooch about, mooch around, slummock;

North American, informal bum around, bat around, lollygag, lay on one's oars.

2 the men idled their time away on street corners:

fritter, while, laze, loiter;

pass, spend, use, employ, use up, occupy, take up, fill up, fill in, fill, beguile, expend, devote, waste, dissipate, kill.

3 Robert idled along the pavement:

saunter, stroll, dawdle, drift, potter, amble, go/walk slowly, loiter, maunder, wander, straggle;

informal mosey, tootle;

British, informal pootle, mooch, swan.

4 he slowed the car at a junction, letting the engine idle:

tick over, run slowly in neutral.

word links	idle
thassophobia fear of being idle

choose the right word	idle, lazy, indolent
See lazy.

idle Oxford Dictionary of English