idle

/ˈaɪd(ə)l/

idle adjective: empty, vacant.

Adjective

idle (comparative more idle, superlative most idle)

(obsolete) Empty, vacant.

Synonyms:

bare, leer, void
Not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity.
- idle hours
- My computer hibernates after it has been idle for 30 minutes.
Synonyms:

dormant, quiescent, suspended, abeyant, at rest, cessant, dull, fallow, hibernating, inactive
Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing in particular.
- idle workmen
- Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I...1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC
Synonyms:

unbusied, workless, anachronistic, antediluvial, antediluvian, antiquated, antique, archaic, backward, backwards
Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
- an idle fellow
- “I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital,[…]!”1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
Synonyms:

indolent, inert, bone-idle, fainéant, lackadaisical, lazy, lither, otiose, slothful, sluggish
Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly.
- an idle story; idle talk; idle rumor; idle threats; idle pleasures
Synonyms:

petty, pointless, base, contemptible, floccinaucinihilipilificatious, foolish, for the birds, futile, frivolous, ignorable
(obsolete) Light-headed; foolish.
- The youth is idle1628, John Ford, The Lover's Melancholy
Synonyms:

fatuous, unwise, asinine, balmy, barmy, bedaft, loony, daft, derpy, dim-headed

Verb

idle (third-person singular simple present idles, present participle idling, simple past and past participle idled)

(transitive) To spend (time) in idleness; to waste; to consume.
- […] the ne'er-do-anything-at-home who idled his day in immaculate attire and who was banished to Canada on a "remittance," shares his pork and beans with the sourdough, who has scratched rocks and sifted black sand from his infancy.1912, Frederick Arthur Talbot, Making Good in Canada, page 81
- While idling the hours I trace verses / On the inside of wrappers embellishing cans Of Bordeaux mackerel, caught in Monterey.1920, Raine Bennett, After the Day: A Collection of Post-war Impressions, page 1
(intransitive) To lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business.
- to idle in an IRC channel
- He had already heard of the young man's projected journey — evidently the Comte de Combourg had written many letters while his son idled at St. Malo […]1939, Joan Evans, Chateaubriand, page 32
(intransitive) Of an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over.
- When train heating is in operation the diesel engine is arranged to idle at 550 r.p.m. which is the minimum at which the generator will deliver its full rated output.1960 April, “Type "3" Diesel-Electric Locomotives for the Southern Region”, in Railway Magazine, page 246
- High levels of all pollutants were found during time idling in stations.2021 October 6, Paul Clifton, “Network News: RSSB research exposes poor air quality on diesel trains”, in RAIL, number 941, page 14
(transitive) To cause (an engine) to idle (run at a slow speed, or out of gear).
- The driver idled his engine until the car finally stalled.
(transitive) To make (workers, students, etc) idle; to leave without work.
- [L]ayoffs idled 1,900 workers in Ohio and 1,000 in Indiana. At the same time, an Indiana assembly plant recalled 1,200 workers.1955, United States Bureau of Employment Security, Unemployment Insurance Claims, volumes 11-12, page 14

Noun

idle (plural idles)

The state of idling, of being idle.
The lowest selectable thrust or power setting of an engine.
- a lumpy idle
- A slight valve tap was audible at idle but was not noticeable otherwise.
Synonyms:

full throttle, wide open
An idle animation.
An idle game.

Synonyms:

idle game, incremental game

Proper noun (1) capitalized: IDLE

IDLE

(abbreviation, initialism, Python) Initialism of Integrated DeveLopment Environment.
(abbreviation, initialism, Python) Initialism of Integrated Development and Learning Environment.
(abbreviation, acronym) Acronym of indolent lesion of epithelial origin.

Synonyms:

IDE

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Idle

Idle (countable and uncountable, plural Idles)

A surname.
A suburb in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE1737).
A river, the River Idle in Nottinghamshire, England, which flows into the River Trent.

idle meaning in Arabic, Indonesian, Persian and Thai

idle in Arabic

not engaged in any occupation or employment: عَاطِل عَن اَلْعَمَل ʕāṭil ʕan al-ʕamal

idle in Indonesian

not engaged in any occupation or employment: gabut

idle in Persian

not turned to appropriate use, not occupied, of time with little activity: تلفشده talaf-šode, بیکار bikâr, بیکاری bikâri
not engaged in any occupation or employment: بیکار bikâr
of no importance, worthless, useless: الکی alaki

idle in Thai

not engaged in any occupation or employment: ว่างงาน wâang-ngaan

More languagesFewer languages

idle in Vietnamese: không hoạt động, ngồi không, đứng không, nằm không

Examples of idle in a sentence

You earn no interest on the idle money in the account.2009, Jane Bryant Quinn, Making the Most of Your Money Now:
She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors.1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:

All 40 example sentences with idle

Synonyms of idle

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of idle

Forms of idle

Adjective
comparative	more idle
superlative	most idle
Verb
third-person singular present	idles
present participle	idling
past participle	idled
past	idled
Noun
plural	idles
Proper noun
plural	Idles

Origin of idle

From Middle English idel, ydel, from Old English īdel, from Proto-West Germanic *īdl, from Proto-Germanic *īdlaz. Cognate with Dutch ijdel (“vain, meaningless”), ijl (“rareified, skinny”), iel (“thin, slender”); German Low German iedel (“vain, idle”); German eitel (“vain, conceited”); and possibly Old Norse illr ("bad"; > English ill).

From Middle English idelen, from Old English īdlian, from Proto-West Germanic *īdlēn. Cognate with German eiteln (“to make empty, free up”).

From Middle English idel, ydel, from Old English īdel (“idleness”), from the adjective (see above).

Phrases with idle

Words that rhyme with idle

Questions about idle

What does idle mean?: Idle means empty, vacant.
What is idle in Arabic?: Idle in Arabic is عَاطِل عَن اَلْعَمَل (ʕāṭil ʕan al-ʕamal). See Idle meaning in Arabic.
How do you use idle in a sentence?: You earn no interest on the idle money in the account.
What part of speech is idle?: Idle can be an adjective, a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce idle?: Idle is pronounced /ˈaɪd(ə)l/.

Words near idle in the dictionary

Adapted from Wiktionary: idle (page history and authors); IDLE (page history and authors); Idle (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated: 2026-09-02

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-idle.ogg.

Cite this entry: “idle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/idle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.