[
UK
/ˈaɪdəl/
]
[ US /ˈaɪdəɫ/ ]
[ US /ˈaɪdəɫ/ ]
VERB
-
run disconnected or idle
the engine is idling -
be idle; exist in a changeless situation
He slugged in bed all morning
The old man sat and stagnated on his porch
ADJECTIVE
-
not in action or at work
idle drifters
an idle laborer
an idle mind
the idle rich -
not yielding a return
dead capital
idle funds -
silly or trivial
light banter
light idle chatter
idle pleasure -
not in active use
the machinery sat idle during the strike
idle hands -
not having a job
idle carpenters
jobless transients
many people in the area were out of work -
without a basis in reason or fact
unwarranted jealousy
baseless gossip
idle fears
unfounded suspicions
the allegations proved groundless -
lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility
idle talk
a loose tongue
NOUN
-
the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling
the car engine was running at idle
How To Use idle In A Sentence
- A man is not idle because he is absorbed in thought. There is a visible labor and there is an invisible labor. Victor Hugo
- It did in fact return many idled workers to the work force and created a good deal of useful infrastructure but that was then, this is now. Matthew Yglesias » Where is the Jobs Strategy?
- I might have understood how clumsy I was, when I was rearing my children in the most utter idleness and luxury, to reform other people and their children, who were perishing from idleness in what I called the den of the Rzhanoff house, where, nevertheless, three-fourths of the people toil for themselves and for others. What to Do?
- He wears his cap backwards and spits rhymes with fierce energy and unbridled theatrics. The Harvard Crimson :: News
- She's so relaxed in behind but idles as soon as she hits the front.
- Idleness is the key of beggary, and the root of all evil.
- Men are left idle when machines break down.
- This appears to have led to his death after he lost control of a scooter on a bridleway above the Wharfe's steep banks near his home. Jimi Heselden obituary
- Os ydy'r drefn yn cael ei mabwysiadu un o'r dewisiadau pwysicaf fydd penderfynu p'un ai i ganiatáu i bobol pleidleisio "uwchben y lein" sef y drefn sy'n cael ei defnyddio yn Awstralia. BBC Blog Network
- It is the other side of a public bridle path and almost overgrown with vicious brambles. Times, Sunday Times
