idly

[ahyd-lee]

adverb

1. without taking action or showing concern.

   We cannot stand idly by and let evil prevail!

2. without apparent purpose or intention; aimlessly.

   He would tinker idly in his workshop for hours.

3. in a lazy way; indolently.

   Neither of them does anything much in life besides live idly or recklessly.

Other Word Forms

• overidly adverb
• unidly adverb

Word History and Origins

Origin of idly¹

id(le) ( def. ) + -ly

Example Sentences

“This is unacceptable and frankly, un-American. California will not sit idly as its workers are systematically denied the right to organize.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

The men and women shown milling about and idly gazing — which we are now doing in the museum — become projections of us.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

“Rather than stand idly by while our constitutional freedoms are lost, I dissent.”

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Still, he wasn’t one to sit idly by, waiting on a problem to solve itself.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

Famine is taking place in Gaza - just a short drive away from hundreds of trucks of aid sitting idly outside its borders.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• leisurely 
• nonchalantly 
• slowly