idle

Meanings

1. 1adjectivecomparable

   Not doing any work or not being used at the moment.

   Grammar: Works before or after a noun: idle workers; the factory stood idle.

   Patterns

   • stand idle
   • sit idle

   The machines sat idle during the strike.

   Idle hands often find trouble, my grandmother used to say.

   Thousands of workers were left idle when the plant closed.

2. 2adjectivebefore a noun

   Without any serious purpose, reason or effect.

   Grammar: Comes before a noun: idle chatter, an idle threat.

   Patterns

   • idle gossip
   • an idle threat

   It was just idle curiosity that made me look.

   Her warnings were not idle threats.

   They spent the evening in idle chat about nothing in particular.

3. 3adjectivecomparabledisapprovingBritish

   Lazy and unwilling to work.

   Grammar: Describes a person, and is more critical than the first sense.

   The idle student let his homework pile up.

   He was too idle to cut the grass.

   The boss dismissed them as idle and careless.

4. 4verbintransitive

   To spend time doing nothing in particular, or to run an engine slowly without moving.

   Grammar: No object: the car idled at the curb.

   Patterns

   • idle away the time
   • idle at something

   The taxi idled outside the hotel with its engine running.

   We idled away the afternoon by the river.

   Please do not idle your engine near the school.

Word forms

Common combinations

idle chatter

The room was full of idle chatter before the meeting.

idle threat

His promise to quit was an idle threat.

stand idle

The cranes stood idle after the funding ran out.

idle curiosity

I asked out of idle curiosity.

idle away the hours

They idled away the hours on the porch.

Synonyms and how they differ

inactive

Inactive is a neutral, technical word, while idle can suggest wasted time.

unused

Unused applies only to things, but idle can describe people and machines.

lazy

Lazy blames a person's character, whereas idle may only describe a temporary lack of work.

pointless

Pointless means without purpose, close to the second sense, but it is stronger and always critical.

Opposites

Word family

idly adverb

in a lazy or aimless way

idleness noun

the state of doing nothing

idler noun

a person who avoids work

idling noun

running an engine while stationary

Commonly confused: idle or idol? idle or idyll?

Practice

Make it your own

Write a sentence using “idle”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.

Explore more words