idlesse
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of idlesse
1590–1600; idle + -esse, as in finesse, etc.
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.
"I will cut some bread for you, sir, if you will condescend to sit," said a voice, which was as that of a child at its evening prayer, so full it was of an innocent idlesse, not na�vet�, but differing therefrom as differs the lisp of infancy from the stammer of diffident manhood.
From Project Gutenberg
Feeding the clods your idlesse drains, You make more green six feet of soil; His fruitful word, like suns and rains, Partakes the seasons' bounteous pains, And toils to lighten human toil.
From Project Gutenberg
They had spun out a month of summer with that graceful mingling of idlesse and wonder, that a Frenchwoman can so well graft upon the habit of a husband's travel: they had bidden adieu to Brussels, and to Liege, and were fast nearing the border-town, beyond which lay their own sunny realm of France.
From Project Gutenberg
The tables were drawn, it was idlesse all, Knight and page and household squire Loitered through the lofty hall, Or crowded round the ample fire.
From Project Gutenberg
It may be that the owner of said pasture may recall the lines of Garcilaso: "But in calm idlesse laid, Supine in the cool shade Of oak or ilex, beech or pendant pine, Sees his flocks feeding stray, Whitening a length of way, Or numbers up his homeward-tending kine."
From Project Gutenberg
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.