idle.
Empty, vacant.
Meaning & usage
Empty, vacant.
Not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity.
idle hours
My computer hibernates after it has been idle for 30 minutes.
Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing in particular.
idle workmen
Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
an idle fellow
Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly.
an idle story; idle talk; idle rumor; idle threats; idle pleasures
Light-headed; foolish.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English idel, ydel, from Old English īdel, from Proto-West Germanic *īdl, from Proto-Germanic *īdlaz. 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).
To spend (time) in idleness; to waste; to consume.
To lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business.
to idle in an IRC channel
Of an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over.
To cause (an engine) to idle (run at a slow speed, or out of gear).
The driver idled his engine until the car finally stalled.
To make (workers, students, etc) idle; to leave without work.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English idelen, from Old English īdlian, from Proto-West Germanic *īdlēn. Cognate with German eiteln (“to make empty, free up”).
The state of idling, of being idle.
The lowest selectable thrust or power setting of an engine.
a lumpy idle
A slight valve tap was audible at idle but was not noticeable otherwise.
An idle animation.
An idle game.
Where this word comes from
From Middle English idel, ydel, from Old English īdel (“idleness”), from the adjective (see above).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.