English▸ adjective
(idler, idlest)
1 (of a person) avoiding work; lazy:
idle students.
▪ (of a person) not working; unemployed:
10.3 percent of the workforce is now idle.
▪ (especially of a machine or factory) not active or in use:
assembly lines standing idle for lack of spare parts.
▪ [attributive] (of time) characterized by inaction or absence of significant activity:
at no time in the day must there be an idle moment.
▪ (of money) held in cash or in accounts paying no interest.
2 without purpose or effect; pointless:
he did not want to waste valuable time in idle chatter.
▪ (especially of a threat or boast) without foundation:
I knew Ellen did not make idle threats.
▸ verb
1 [no object] spend time doing nothing:
four men were idling outside the shop
[with object] we idled the afternoon away.
▪ move aimlessly or lazily:
Cal idled past MetroHealth at a stately pace.
▪ [with object] North American take out of use or employment:
he will close the newspaper, idling 2,200 workers.
– ORIGIN Old English īdel ‘empty, useless’, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch ijdel ‘vain, frivolous, useless’ and German eitel ‘bare, worthless’.