idle

Plural: idles

Noun

• the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling
  • "the car engine was running at idle"
• The state of idling, of being idle.
• The lowest selectable thrust or power setting of an engine.
• An idle animation.
• An idle game.

Verb

Verb Forms: idled, idling, idles

• To pass time without working or doing anything useful.
• run disconnected or idle
• be idle; exist in a changeless situation
• To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume.
• To lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business.
• Of an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over.
• To cause (an engine) to idle(3)

Adjective

• Not working or active; doing nothing.
• not in action or at work
  • "an idle laborer"
  • "idle drifters"
  • "the idle rich"
  • "an idle mind"

Adjective Satellite

• without a basis in reason or fact
  • "idle fears"
• not in active use
  • "the machinery sat idle during the strike"
  • "idle hands"
• silly or trivial
  • "idle pleasure"
  • "light idle chatter"
• lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility
  • "idle talk"
• not yielding a return
  • "idle funds"
• not having a job
  • "idle carpenters"

Adj

• Empty, vacant.
• Not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity.
• Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing in particular.
• Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
• Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly.
• Light-headed; foolish.

Examples

• a lumpy idle
• A slight valve tap was audible at idle but was not noticeable otherwise.
• an idle fellow
• an idle story;  idle talk;  idle rumor
• idle hours
• idle workmen
• My computer hibernates after it has been idle for 30 minutes.
• My tiles lay idle for too long, waiting for the perfect word that never appeared.
• One cannot idle during a competitive Words With Friends game; every turn counts.
• to idle in an IRC channel

Synonyms

baseless, dead, groundless, jobless, laze, light, loose, out of work, slug, stagnate, tick over, unfounded, unused, unwarranted, wild, Havishamesque, Miss Havishamesque, abeyant, anachronistic, antediluvial, antediluvian, antiquated, antique, archaic, asinine, at rest, backward, backwards, balmy, bare, barmy, base, bedaft, behind the times, between jobs, bone-idle, cessant, cobwebbed, cobwebby, contemptible, crackpot, daft, dated, defunct, dense, derpy, dim-headed, dim-witted, discontinued, disused, dootsie, dopey, dormant, dull, dull-headed, dull-witted, dumb, duncical, elderly, employmentally challenged, expired, extinct, fallow, fatuous, foolish, for the birds, fossilized, frivolous, full throttle, futile, fuzzy-headed, fuzzy-minded, gauvison, goofy, idiotic, idle, idle game, ignorable, immaterial, inactive, inconsequential, inconsiderable, incremental game, indifferent, indolent, inert, insignificant, insipient, lackadaisical, languid, latent, lazy, leer, like a fart in a windstorm, lither, loony, meager, mean, minor, mookish, naive, negligible, nonactive, nondescript, nonemployed, nothingburger, obsolete, occupationless, old, old school, old-fashioned, oldfangled, on the wallaby, on the wallaby track, out of a job, out of date, out of fashion, outdated, outmoded, outworn, paltry, parachronistic, passé, petty, picayune, picayunish, piddly, pissant, pitiful, pointless, quiescent, resting, sedent, sedentary, silent, silly, simple, slight, slothful, slow, slow-witted, sluggish, soft in the head, softheaded, sottish, stupid, superannuated, superseded, suspended, swear, thick, tin-pot, torpid, trifling, trivial, two-bit, unactive, unbusied, unbusy, unemployed, unimportant, unoccupied, unsage, unweighty, unwise, vain, venerable, void, wide open, wool-headed, woolly-headed, woolly-minded, work-shy, workless, worthless, wretched

Antonyms

busy, run, work

Related Words

idling speed

Anagrams of idle