Idle Meaning
/ˈaɪd(ə)l/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
adjEmpty, vacant.
adjNot being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity.
Sentence Examples
You are idle to the bone.
Some boys are diligent, others are idle.
It is absurd to idle away the student life.
CEFR Practice Quiz
The factory workers remained ____ because the machinery was broken.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The machines sat ____ for several months while the factory was closed for major repairs.
Word Origin & History
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).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The majority of accounts require no minimum balance and charge no monthly service fee. Where monthly fees and balance requirements exist, they're low. You earn no interest on the idle money in the account."
— 2009, Jane Bryant Quinn, Making the Most of Your Money Now:
"Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes."
— 1879, R[ichard] J[efferies], chapter 1, in The Amateur Poacher, London: Smith, Elder, & Co., […], →OCLC:
"“I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle, brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital,[…]!”"
— 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter VI, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
"The youth is idle"
— 1628, John Ford, The Lover's Melancholy:
"[…] the ne'er-do-anything-at-home who idled his day in immaculate attire and who was banished to Canada on a "remittance," shares his pork and beans with the sourdough, who has scratched rocks and sifted black sand from his infancy."
— 1912, Frederick Arthur Talbot, Making Good in Canada, page 81:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The factory workers remained ____ because the machinery was broken.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The machines sat ____ for several months while the factory was closed for major repairs.