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The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms INTRO ...

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Colloq at leisure, at liberty, between assignments, resting, US<br />

on the beach: Unable to find work, Gilbert has been idle for a<br />

year. 3 indolent, lazy, listless, lethargic, loafing, slothful,<br />

shiftless, lackadaisical, loitering, fain‚ant: Since winning<br />

the lottery, Crouch has become one <strong>of</strong> the idle rich. 4<br />

bootless, fruitless, unproductive, abortive, unfruitful,<br />

pointless, vain, trifling, trivial, shallow, nugatory,<br />

superficial, insignificant, meaningless, senseless, unimportant,<br />

frivolous, worthless, useless, otiose, unavailing, futile: We<br />

were passing the time at the pub in idle chatter when Michael<br />

walked in. He had no factual information to <strong>of</strong>fer, only idle<br />

speculation.<br />

--v. 5 Often, idle away. waste, fritter away, while away, kill:<br />

<strong>The</strong>y idle away the hours lying by the swimming-pool. 6 laze<br />

(about), loiter, kill time, loaf, loll, lounge, take it easy,<br />

Brit potter or US putter about or away, mess about, fool away,<br />

fool around or about, Colloq Brit muck about, bugger about, US<br />

lallygag or lollygag, go<strong>of</strong> <strong>of</strong>f or around, Military slang US<br />

gold-brick: Stop idling and get down to work.<br />

idleness n. 1 inactivity, inaction, lethargy, torpor, indolence,<br />

laziness, sluggishness, sloth, slothfulness, shiftlessness,<br />

inertia, lassitude, torpor, flƒnerie, dolce far niente;<br />

unemployment, Colloq US lallygagging or lollygagging, Military<br />

slang US gold-bricking: <strong>The</strong> strike created enforced idleness<br />

for non-union workers as well. 2 shirking, malingering,<br />

dawdling, loafing, time-wasting, lazing, Colloq dilly-dallying,<br />

shilly-shallying, Brit skiving: <strong>The</strong> foreman warned that he<br />

would not tolerate idleness.<br />

idler n. loafer, layabout, slacker, shirker, sluggard, lazybones,<br />

slugabed, laggard, dawdler, clock-watcher, drone, slouch,<br />

ne'er-do-well, fain‚ant, Colloq lounge lizard, Military slang US<br />

gold brick or gold-bricker: To fill out a crew we <strong>of</strong>ten<br />

recruited men from among waterfront idlers.<br />

idly adv. 1 unproductively, lazily, indolently: She wanders about<br />

the shops, idly whiling away the hours. 2 <strong>of</strong>fhandedly,<br />

unconsciously, mechanically, thoughtlessly, unthinkingly,<br />

obliviously, insensibly, indifferently: He sat quietly, his<br />

fingers idly drumming on the tabletop.

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