idle
Americanadjective
-
idler,
comparative
-
idlest
superlative
-
not working or active; unemployed; doing nothing.
idle workers.
- Synonyms:
- sluggish
- Antonyms:
- industrious, busy
-
not spent or filled with activity.
idle hours.
-
not in use or operation; not kept busy.
idle machinery.
-
habitually doing nothing or avoiding work; lazy.
-
of no real worth, importance, or significance.
idle talk.
- Antonyms:
- worthwhile, important
-
having no basis or reason; baseless; groundless.
idle fears.
-
frivolous; vain.
idle pleasures.
- Synonyms:
- wasteful
-
meaningless; senseless.
idle threats.
-
futile; unavailing.
idle rage.
verb (used without object)
-
idles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
idled,
past participle, past
-
idling
present participle
-
to pass time doing nothing.
-
to move, loiter, or saunter aimlessly.
to idle along the avenue.
-
(of a machine, engine, or mechanism) to operate at a low speed, disengaged from the load.
verb (used with object)
-
idles,
present (3rd person singular)
-
idled,
past participle, past
-
idling
present participle
-
to pass (time) doing nothing (often followed byaway ).
to idle away the afternoon.
- Synonyms:
- waste
-
to cause (a person) to be idle.
The strike idled many workers.
-
to cause (a machine, engine, or mechanism) to idle.
I waited in the car while idling the engine.
noun
-
the state or quality of being idle.
-
the state of a machine, engine, or mechanism that is idling.
a cold engine that stalls at idle.
adjective
-
unemployed or unoccupied; inactive
-
not operating or being used
-
(of money) not being used to earn interest or dividends
-
not wanting to work; lazy
-
(usually prenominal) frivolous or trivial
idle pleasures
-
ineffective or powerless; fruitless; vain
-
without basis; unfounded
verb
-
to waste or pass (time) fruitlessly or inactively
he idled the hours away
-
(intr) to loiter or move aimlessly
-
(intr) (of a shaft, engine, etc) to turn without doing useful work
-
Also (Brit): tick over. (intr) (of an engine) to run at low speed with the transmission disengaged
-
(tr) to cause to be inactive or unemployed
Synonym Usage
Idle, indolent, lazy, slothful apply to a person who is not active. To be idle is to be inactive or not working at a job. The word is sometimes derogatory, but not always, since one may be relaxing temporarily or may be idle through necessity: pleasantly idle on a vacation; to be idle because one is unemployed or because supplies are lacking. The indolent person is naturally disposed to avoid exertion: indolent and slow in movement; an indolent and contented fisherman. The lazy person is averse to exertion or work, and especially to continued application; the word is usually derogatory: too lazy to earn a living; incurably lazy. Slothful denotes a reprehensible unwillingness to carry one's share of the burden: so slothful as to be a burden on others. See loiter.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
idlesimple
-
idlessimple
-
have idledperfect
-
has idledperfect
-
am idlingprogressive
-
are idlingprogressive
-
is idlingprogressive
-
have been idlingperfect progressive
-
has been idlingperfect progressive
Past
-
idledsimple
-
had idledperfect
-
was idlingprogressive
-
were idlingprogressive
-
had been idlingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of idle
First recorded before 900, and in 1915–20 idle for def. 12; Middle English, Old English īdel (adjective) “empty, trifling, vain, useless”; cognate with German eitel
Explanation
Something idle is not active. If your car is idling, it's running but not moving. If someone calls you idle, it either means they think you don't have enough to do or that you're just plain lazy. Idle can also mean having no value or purpose: idle rumors are rumors that people make up when they're bored, but have no grounding in fact. As a verb, idle can also refer to a car engine that is running while the vehicle is not moving. The adjective descends from Middle English idel, from Old English īdel "empty."
Vocabulary lists containing idle
Some Tricky Homonyms
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The Lazy, Hazy Days of Summer
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List 8
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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.
See Examples For:
The process is somewhat like monitoring a car engine to determine whether it continues running at high speed even when the vehicle is supposed to be idle.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026
A few pieces of heavy equipment sit idle on the vast cleared tract.
From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026
After sitting idle for months at a maintenance facility, it relocated in early July to waters off a strip of coastline known as the Kalma Peninsula.
From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026
It was no idle curiosity: The stranger was a spy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
She picked up the bundle of typescript in an idle moment while passing through this office on her way to luncheon, asked to take it home to read, and finished it that afternoon.
From "Atonement" by Ian McEwan
There is an almost continuous succession of scenes in which Nicholson sketches this idler, lover, jokester, manipulator, con man, gambler, loner.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2023
Oh, that would be the uncle who willed his farm and estate to Onegin, a charming idler.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2020
What’s missing is a palpable grit, particularly in Whitted’s performance, that would help us to a belief in Hal’s head-spinning pivot from idler and carouser to beloved hero of the realm.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2019
Behind it all is John D. Rockefeller Jr. — or Junior, as he was known — a man with a feisty wife and few obvious passions beyond the wish to avoid seeming like an idler.
From New York Times ● Apr. 29, 2013
The man had his hands in his pockets and a straw in his mouth, and he seemed to be a mere idler; but as his eyes met Clement's he winked.
From Ovington's Bank by Stanley J. Weyman
Shettleston is one of Britain’s poorest, idlest and sickest places; at 64, male life expectancy is 15 years below the national average and falling.
From Economist ● Jul. 10, 2014
On the idlest previous day in the history of the bureau, Feb. 25, 1932, there had been 56 licenses issued.
From Time Magazine Archive
The night I undertook to convert the idlest man in the northern hemisphere?
From The Sixth Sense A Novel by Stephen McKenna
The suggestion that an attack from the Confederate forces at Corinth was imminent, would have been dismissed as the idlest and weakest of apprehensions.
From History of Morgan's Cavalry by Basil Wilson Duke
Keeping an eye upon Dimber Joe, who continued his lounging and novel reading, and who was, to all appearances, the idlest and most care-free man in Trafton.
From Out of a Labyrinth by Lawrence L. Lynch
Your internal machinery fires when you want to sleep and idles when you need to be sharp.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026
As I sit in the car with C after the second ICE vehicle sped off, the remaining Wagoneer idles midblock—right in front of C’s house.
From Slate ● Jan. 16, 2026
A carpenter whose own narrowboat is moored in a clump of four boats says that when one of his neighbours idles her older diesel engine, the exhaust seeps right into his boat, nearly choking him.
From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2023
“Billy never idles, so why should you?” the ’80s MTV star growls in a public service announcement intended to shame New Yorkers into shutting the engine off.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 27, 2020
The car idles in front of my house.
From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy
“Hurdles include mine clearance, insurance reinstatement, emptying excess Gulf oil storage, repositioning ships, and restarting idled production fields and downstream infrastructure across several Gulf producers,” they say.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 16, 2026
His girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, idled their car in a disabled parking spot, accompanied by the couple’s other child.
From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2026
In 1878, confronting the lowest prices for pig iron since colonial times, American ironmasters wondered if the smokestacks on their idled blast furnaces might serve a higher use as astronomical observatories.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026
He voiced his rage over an empty reservoir, idled fire trucks and what he called dangerous brush clearance policies.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026
Strikers idled in bars around the Yard, staring out the window at the steady stream of men and women the packers were bringing in.
From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield
Owner-operator Deol uses battery-powered electric air conditioning systems installed on both his trucks so he can turn off the engines and avoid idling.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026
His comments on the sidelines of G20 talks come as Russian and Ukrainian strikes targeting Black Sea ports have been wrecking and idling agricultural export capacity more quickly than trade flows can recover.
From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026
Llyr Gruffydd, cabinet minister for rural resilience and sustainability, said the £20 fixed fine for idling was "insufficient", and not being used "in the way everyone might envision it".
From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026
He preened, grabbed his oversized scissors and opened his mouth to boast, but no one could hear a single word over the deafening roar of Marine One’s idling engines.
From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026
At the Lahore Gate bus station, near Pol Mahmood Khan in East Kabul, a row of buses sat idling along the curbside.
From "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
