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Idle   /ˈaɪdəl/   Listen
Idle

adjective
(compar. idler; superl. idlest)
1.
Not in action or at work.  "Idle drifters" , "The idle rich" , "An idle mind"
2.
Without a basis in reason or fact.  Synonyms: baseless, groundless, unfounded, unwarranted, wild.  "The allegations proved groundless" , "Idle fears" , "Unfounded suspicions" , "Unwarranted jealousy"
3.
Not in active use.  Synonym: unused.  "Idle hands"
4.
Silly or trivial.  Synonym: light.  "Light banter" , "Light idle chatter"
5.
Lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility.  Synonym: loose.  "A loose tongue"
6.
Not yielding a return.  Synonym: dead.  "Idle funds"
7.
Not having a job.  Synonyms: jobless, out of work.  "Jobless transients" , "Many people in the area were out of work"
verb
(past & past part. idled; pres. part. idling)
1.
Run disconnected or idle.  Synonym: tick over.
2.
Be idle; exist in a changeless situation.  Synonyms: laze, slug, stagnate.  "He slugged in bed all morning"
noun
1.
The state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling.



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"Idle" Quotes from Famous Books



... Christianity, and if all three had conspired to draw together into one the various temperaments and tendencies of the German Americans in the unity of the Spirit with the bond of peace, may seem like an idle historical conjecture, but the question is not without practical interest to-day. Perhaps the Moravians would have been the better for being ballasted with the weighty theologies and the conservative temper of ...
— A History of American Christianity • Leonard Woolsey Bacon

... personal evidence to—prosecute my campaign," said Fyles quickly. "As you said just now, we are not idle." ...
— The Law-Breakers • Ridgwell Cullum

... bears his gonfaloun; There too Gerin and Geriers are found. Where they are found, is seen a mighty crowd, Fifteen thousand, come out of France the Douce. On white carpets those knights have sate them down, At the game-boards to pass an idle hour;— Chequers the old, for wisdom most renowned, While fence the young and lusty bachelours. Beneath a pine, in eglantine embow'red, l Stands a fald-stool, fashioned of gold throughout; There sits the King, that holds Douce France in pow'r; White is his beard, ...
— The Song of Roland • Anonymous

... Shakespearian drama, a force that crushes and dissolves the resisting materials into their elements, and recombines or fuses them into a new substance, is a force so different in kind from Jonson's, that it would of course be idle to attempt an estimate of its superiority in degree. And in regard to those minor dramatists who will be the subjects of the present paper, if they fall below Jonson in general ability, they nearly all afford scenes and passages superior to his best in depth of passion, vigor of imagination, and ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 20, No. 122, December, 1867 • Various

... me thinking; but which I was bound to acknowledge could be only the idle maunderings of a diseased mind from which all impressions had fled, save those of ...
— The House of the Whispering Pines • Anna Katharine Green


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