idle

idle adj

1 *vain, nugatory, otiose, empty, hollow

Analogous words: fruitless, bootless, *futile, vain: *ineffective, ineffectual, inefficacious: trivial, paltry, *petty, trifling

Contrasted words: significant, pregnant, meaningful (see EXPRESSIVE): profitable, *beneficial, advantageous

2 *inactive, inert, passive, supine

Analogous words: indolent, faineant, *lazy, slothful: dawdling, lagging, procrastinating (see DELAY)

Antonyms: busy

Contrasted words: industrious, diligent, assiduous, sedulous (see BUSY)

idle vb Idle, loaf, lounge, loll, laze mean to spend time not in work but in idleness.

Idle may be used with reference to persons or to things that move lazily or without purpose; it may also be employed to connote either strong censure or a pleasant or justifiable action

{

why do you idle away all your days?

}

{

it is impossible to enjoy idling thoroughly unless one has plenty of work to do— Jerome

}

{

the brook idles through the pasture

}

{

her fingers idled over the keys

}

{

it is pleasant to saunter out in the morning sun and idle along the summer streets with no purpose— L. P. Smith

}

Loaf suggests either a resting or a wandering about as though there were nothing to do; it does not necessarily imply contempt, although its agent noun loafer when used seriously nearly always carries that implication and has often affected the meaning of the verb

{

Tennyson does the greater part of his literary work . . . between breakfast and lunch, and loafs the rest of the day— Boston Journal

}

{

I loaf and invite my soul, I lean and loaf at my ease observing a spear of summer grass— Whitman

}

{

the idea of the university as a place of leisure where rich young men loaf for three or four years is dying— Russell

}

{

men who came into the shop to loaf during winter afternoons— Anderson

}

Lounge, though occasionally used as equal to idle or to loaf, typically conveys an additional implication of lazily resting or reclining against a support or of physical comfort and ease in relaxation

{

he stood . . . lounging with his elbow against the bar— Dickens

}

{

against the sunny sides of the houses, men lounged, or played at duck on a rock— Mary Austin

}

The agent noun lounger is, however, usually derogatory, though slightly less so than loafer

{

he is not a loafer, but he is a lounger on street corners during his free hours

}

{

the loungers at the bar were beginning to show signs of leaving— MacFall

}

Loll also carries an implication of a posture similar to that of lounge, but it places greater stress upon an indolent or relaxed attitude

{

there were not yet any jaded people lolling supine in carriages— Shaw

}

{

on Sunday afternoons . . . when a crowd was there to loll on the front porch and swap stories— Caldwell

}

Laze usually implies the relaxation of a busy person enjoying a vacation or his moments of leisure

{

I had a very pleasant time, sailing, fishing, and lazing about— J. R. Lowell

}

{

it was nice lazing this way. About time she had a holiday!— Christie

}

Analogous words: rest, relax, repose (see corresponding nouns at REST): *saunter, stroll, amble