idly
Americanadverb
-
without taking action or showing concern.
We cannot stand idly by and let evil prevail!
-
without apparent purpose or intention; aimlessly.
He would tinker idly in his workshop for hours.
-
in a lazy way; indolently.
Neither of them does anything much in life besides live idly or recklessly.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Etymology
Origin of idly
Explanation
Acting idly means behaving in a lazy, slow, or aimless way. Your idea of a perfect vacation might be lying idly on the beach all day. If you're idly chatting with your friend, there's a casual, nonchalant tone to your conversation, and if you lounge idly on the couch on Saturday morning, you're lazing around with no real purpose. The adverb idly describes any action that isn't particularly active, and it comes from idle, "lazy or unemployed," and its Germanic root meaning "worthless."
Vocabulary lists containing idly
Bridge to Terabithia
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Island of the Blue Dolphins
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myPerspectives 9.3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Idly, she cast her gaze across the oceans to the only land-mass visible.
From Nature • Jun. 30, 2020
Idly happy in her own house, she is finishing the patchwork she has been sewing.
From Economist • Nov. 9, 2017
Rabbi Joel Mosbacher, who co-chairs the Metro Industrial Areas Foundation’s Do Not Stand Idly By campaign, called the new actions “real” and “well thought through.”
From Washington Post • Apr. 29, 2016
Idly, one notices that the cropping and subtitling of the photographs, stuck in the middle of the articles or placed as exuberant filler between them, has a certain lurid flare.
From The New Yorker • Nov. 24, 2015
Idly I think, How could he ever have been Abnegation?
From "Insurgent" by Veronica Roth
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
