Example: They engaged in idle chatter while waiting for the movie to start. Etymology ●Old English 'īdeles', meaning 'empty, void'. Common Phrases and Expressions idle hands are the devil's workshop: A saying suggesting that inactivity can lead to mischief. idle chatter: Conversations that...
The meaning of IDLE is not occupied or employed. How to use idle in a sentence. Synonym Discussion of Idle.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English. transitive verb To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume; -- often followed by away. intransitive verb To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business. adjective Of no account; useless; ...
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idle2verb1[intransitive]if anengineidles, it runs slowly while thevehicle, machine etc is not movingHe flicked a switch and let the boat idle.2[intransitive]tospendtime doing nothingSometimes he went for a walk; sometimes he just idled.3[transitive]American Englishto stop using a factory or...
Idle can also mean having no value or purpose: idle rumors are rumors that people make up when they're bored, but have no grounding in fact. As a verb, idle can also refer to a car engine that is running while the vehicle is not moving. The adjective descends from Middle English ide...
Define idle words. idle words synonyms, idle words pronunciation, idle words translation, English dictionary definition of idle words. Noun 1. idle words - empty rhetoric or insincere or exaggerated talk; "that's a lot of wind"; "don't give me any of tha
There's something simple andidyllicabout living in a house very close to the water.(Actress Andrea Riseborough) (The adjective "idyllic" (meaning blissful or perfect) comes from "idyll.") The poem starts with short, non-rhymingidyll.
idle: [OE] ‘Lazy’ is only a secondary meaning of idle. It originally meant ‘useless, worthless’ (as in ‘idle threats’), and the sense ‘lazy’ did not develop until the 13th century (the Old English words for ‘lazy’ were slow and slack). Idle is shared by other West Germani...
sense "not employed, not doing work" was in late Old English in reference to persons; from 1520s of things; from 1805 of machinery. Meaning "lazy, slothful" is from c. 1300. In Elizabethan English it also could mean "foolish, delirious, wandering in the mind."Idle threatspreserves origin...