idle time

British

noun

commerce time during which a machine or a worker could be working but is not, as when one job has been completed and tooling or materials for the next are not complete or available Compare downtime

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

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idle time

Even if this is true, understaffing leads to neglect in rehabilitation and excessive idle time.

From Slate ● Oct. 8, 2025

The study's co-author Dr Adwait Sharma agreed, saying the device's "idle time" presented "unique opportunities" to meet the "growing need for adaptable robots and integrated systems that can seamlessly fit into our daily lives".

From BBC ● Apr. 29, 2025

The study demonstrated outperforming results, including reduced passenger rejection rates and driver idle time.

From Science Daily ● Apr. 15, 2024

For example, many social services that kept people safe are back up and running, and most schools are back to in-person learning, leaving fewer adolescents unsupervised with idle time on their hands.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2022

At that time Aureliano Segundo postponed any appointments in order to be with Meme, to take her to the movies or the circus, and he spent the greater part of his idle time with her.

From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023