idler

American  

[ahyd-ler] / ˈaɪd lər /

noun

1. a person who passes time in a lazy or unproductive way.

2. Machinery. an idle gear, wheel, or pulley.

3. Railroads. an empty freight car placed under the projecting end of a long object carried by the next car, so that the latter can be connected with another part of the train.

4. Nautical. day man.

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idler British  

/ ˈaɪdlə /

noun

1. a person who idles

2. another name for idle pulley idle wheel

3. nautical a ship's crew member, such as a carpenter, sailmaker, etc, whose duties do not include standing regular watches

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Etymology

Origin of idler

First recorded in 1525–35; idle + -er ¹

Example Sentences

“You don’t want to live through this, per se,” she suggests about Fiona Apple’s anxieties, which the singer bares in “The Idler Wheel . . . ,” her self-lacerating 2012 album.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 24, 2026

“To me it was like a whole peak of 20th Century culture. It’s never been surpassed,” he told Idler.

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 9, 2023

Apple’s last album, 2012’s incandescent The Idler Wheel …, was full of ornate language: both a spectacle and a raised guard.

From The Guardian • Dec. 18, 2020

He was, by then, closing in on his 10th year as head of the Cloud Appreciation Society and, as he’d done after 10 years with The Idler magazine, he was questioning his commitment to it.

From New York Times • May 4, 2016

Wakefield cites The Idler, 103: "There are few things, not purely evil, of which we can say without some emotion of uneasiness, this is the last."

From Select Poems of Thomas Gray by Carruthers, Robert