Words / B2

YDL/ˈaɪdl/

Idle means not working or not being used: sit idle; idle machinery. Lazy is a criticism of people; idle can be either unused or lazy. The printers sat idle. As a verb: idle away an afternoon (informal). Do not call a quiet, working student idle.

Meaning

Not working or being used; also lazy (often critical).

Examples

• “The lab printers sat idle during the outage, so scripts were handwritten.”
• “An idle rumour reached the group chat, which is the “baseless” sense.”

Good to know

sit idle; idle plant / time. People (critical): lazy. Verb: idle. Engineering and news. Unused, not always lazy.

New