Idle
adj, name, noun, verb ·Very common ·Middle school level
Definitions
- 1 The state of idling, of being idle.
- 2 the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling wordnet
- 3 The lowest selectable thrust or power setting of an engine.
"a lumpy idle"
- 4 An idle animation.
- 5 An idle game.
- 1 To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume. transitive
- 2 run disconnected or idle wordnet
- 3 To lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business. intransitive
"to idle in an IRC channel"
- 4 be idle; exist in a changeless situation wordnet
- 5 Of an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over. intransitive
"High levels of all pollutants were found during time idling in stations."
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- 6 To cause (an engine) to idle(3) transitive
"The driver idled his engine until the car finally stalled."
- 1 Empty, vacant. obsolete
- 2 Not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity.
"idle hours"
- 3 Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing in particular.
"idle workmen"
- 4 Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
"an idle fellow"
- 5 Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly.
"an idle story; idle talk; idle rumor"
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- 6 Light-headed; foolish. obsolete
"The youth is idle"
- 1 not in active use wordnet
- 2 not in action or at work wordnet
- 3 not having a job wordnet
- 4 not yielding a return wordnet
- 5 lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility wordnet
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- 6 silly or trivial wordnet
- 7 without a basis in reason or fact wordnet
- 1 A surname. countable, uncountable
- 2 Initialism of Integrated DeveLopment Environment. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 3 A suburb in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE1737). countable, uncountable
- 4 Initialism of Integrated Development and Learning Environment. abbreviation, alt-of, initialism
- 5 A river, the River Idle in Nottinghamshire, England, which flows into the River Trent. countable, uncountable
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- 6 Acronym of indolent lesion of epithelial origin. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of
Example
More examples"Some boys are diligent, others are idle."
Etymology
From Middle English idel, ydel, from Old English īdel, from Proto-West Germanic *īdal, from Proto-Germanic *īdalaz. 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 *īdalēn. Cognate with German eiteln (“to make empty, free up”).
From Middle English idel, ydel, from Old English īdel (“idleness”), from the adjective (see above).