Definition of: idle

(īd′l) adjective
1. Not occupied; doing nothing.
2. Averse to labor; lazy.
3. Affording leisure.
4. Without effect; useless; unavailing: idle talk, idle rage.
—v. i·dled, i·dling v.i.
1. To spend time in idleness.
2. To saunter or move idly; loaf.
3. Mech. To operate without transmitting power, usually at reduced speed: said of motors and machines.
—v.t.
4. To pass in idleness; waste, as a day.
5. To cause to be idle, as a person or an industry. ♦ Homophones: idol, idyl. [OE īdel empty, useless] Synonyms (adj.): inactive, indolent, inert, lazy, slothful, sluggish, trifling, unemployed, unoccupied, vacant. Idle etymologically denotes not the absence of action, but vain, useless action
—the absence of useful, effective action; the idle schoolboy may be very actively whittling his desk or tormenting his neighbors. Doing nothing whatever is the secondary meaning of idle. A lazy person may chance to be employed in useful work, but he acts without energy or impetus. We speak figuratively of a lazy stream. Slothful belongs in the moral realm, denoting a self–indulgent aversion to exertion. Indolent is a milder term for the same quality. See INSIGNIFICANT. Antonyms: active, busy, diligent, employed, industrious, occupied, working.