Idlehood
noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 The state or condition of being idle; a habit of idling; idleness. rare, uncountable
"It is but too clearly proved and too sadly illustrated in the experience and lives of many ministers, who lay down, half gladly, half reluctantly, the weapons of the old struggle whenever the shelter of the manse is gained - who allow the old ideals of self - culture and self-discipline to fade away and get utterly lost sight of amid the engrossing cares or drowsy idlehood of professional life."
Example
More examples"It is but too clearly proved and too sadly illustrated in the experience and lives of many ministers, who lay down, half gladly, half reluctantly, the weapons of the old struggle whenever the shelter of the manse is gained - who allow the old ideals of self - culture and self-discipline to fade away and get utterly lost sight of amid the engrossing cares or drowsy idlehood of professional life."
Etymology
From idle + -hood, possibly an alteration of obsolete English idlehead (“idleness”), possibly from Middle English idelhed (“vanity”). Compare also Scots ydilheid (“idleness”), Dutch ijdelheid (“vanity, vainglory”), Middle Low German îdelheit (“idleness”), and German Eitelkeit (“vanity, conceit, vainness, idleness”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.