idler


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Related to idler: idler pulley, Idler arm

i·dle

 (īd′l)
adj. i·dler, i·dlest
1.
a. Not employed or busy: idle carpenters. See Synonyms at inactive.
b. Disinclined to work or be active; lazy: "a man who could seem idle, ignorant, even incompetent, yet was able to understand and to express ... the instincts, good and bad, of the American majority" (Godfrey Hodgson).
c. Not in use or operation: idle hands; idle mills.
d. Sports Not scheduled to play a game: Both teams played today but will be idle tomorrow.
2. Being a period of time in which there is little or no activity: passed idle hours watching TV.
3. Lacking substance, value, or basis: idle speculation; idle threats. See Synonyms at baseless, vain.
v. i·dled, i·dling, i·dles
v.intr.
1. To pass time without being engaged in purposeful activity: "The girls idled all day long, sending their tinkling laughter flowing up and down the street" (Alai).
2. To move slowly or without purpose: "I drove past the workshop ... I idled along the driveway past the pole fence ... to Tyhee Road" (Tom Spanbauer).
3. To run at a slow speed or out of gear. Used of a motor or motor vehicle.
v.tr.
1. To pass (time) without doing anything: idle the afternoon away.
2. To make or cause to be unemployed or inactive: layoffs that idled 1,000 factory workers; a plant that was idled by a strike.
3. To cause (a motor, for example) to idle.
n.
1. A state of idling. Used of a motor vehicle: an engine running quietly at idle.
2. A mechanism for regulating the speed at which an engine runs at rest: set the idle higher to keep the motor from stalling.

[Middle English idel, from Old English īdel.]

i′dle·ness n.
i′dler (īd′lər) n.
i′dly adv.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

idler

(ˈaɪdlə)
n
1. a person who idles
2. (General Engineering) another name for idle pulley, idle wheel
3. (Nautical Terms) nautical a ship's crew member, such as a carpenter, sailmaker, etc, whose duties do not include standing regular watches
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.idler - person who does no workidler - person who does no work; "a lazy bum"
nonworker - a person who does nothing
clock watcher - a worker preoccupied with the arrival of quitting time
couch potato - an idler who spends much time on a couch (usually watching television)
dallier, dillydallier, dilly-dallier, lounger, mope - someone who wastes time
dawdler, laggard, lagger, trailer, poke, drone - someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind
daydreamer, woolgatherer - someone who indulges in idle or absentminded daydreaming
lazybones - a lazy person
lie-abed, slugabed - a person who stays in bed until a relatively late hour
loon - a worthless lazy fellow
shirker, slacker - a person who shirks his work or duty (especially one who tries to evade military service in wartime)
sluggard, slug - an idle slothful person
spiv - a person without employment who makes money by various dubious schemes; goes about smartly dressed and having a good time
sunbather - someone who basks in the sunshine in order to get a suntan
trifler - one who behaves lightly or not seriously
whittler - someone who whittles (usually as an idle pastime)
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

idler

noun loafer, lounger, piker (Austral. & N.Z. slang), drone, dodger, slouch (informal), shirker, slacker, couch potato (slang), sloth, dawdler, laggard, time-waster, layabout, deadbeat (informal, chiefly U.S. & Canad.), skiver (Brit. slang), malingerer, sluggard, bludger (Austral. & N.Z. informal), clock-watcher, slugabed, lazybones He resents being seen as a moneyed idler.
Collins Thesaurus of the English Language – Complete and Unabridged 2nd Edition. 2002 © HarperCollins Publishers 1995, 2002

idler

noun
A self-indulgent person who spends time avoiding work or other useful activity:
Slang: slouch.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
كَسول
lenoch
dovenlas
letingi, iîjuleysingi
avareaylaktembel kişi

idler

[ˈaɪdləʳ] Nocioso/a m/f, holgazán/ana m/f, vago/a m/f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

idler

[ˈaɪdlər] n (= lazy person) → oisif/ive m/fidle time n [computer, machine] → temps m mort
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

idler

n
(Brit: = person not working) → Müßiggänger(in) m(f); (= lazy person)Faulenzer(in) m(f), → Faulpelz m
(Tech, = wheel) → Zwischenrad nt; (= pulley)Spannrolle f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

idler

[ˈaɪdləʳ] nfannullone/a, sfaccendato/a
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

idle

(ˈaidl) adjective
1. not working; not in use. ships lying idle in the harbour.
2. lazy. He has work to do, but he's idle and just sits around.
3. having no effect or result. idle threats.
4. unnecessary; without good reason or foundation. idle fears; idle gossip.
verb
1. to be idle or do nothing. On holiday they just idled from morning till night.
2. of an engine etc, to run gently without doing any work. They kept the car engine idling while they checked their position with the map.
ˈidler noun
a lazy person.
ˈidleness noun
ˈidly adverb
idle away
to spend (time) doing nothing. idling the hours away.
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.
References in classic literature ?
Across the estuary, near where the whalers lay, was lying the sloop-yacht Idler. The caretaker was a harpooner who intended sailing next voyage on the whale ship Bonanza.
After that he wrote many essays in a paper called the Adventurer, and, later still, for two years he wrote for another paper a series of articles called the Idler.
Now, amid the green, life-restless loom of that Arsacidean wood, the great, white, worshipped skeleton lay lounging --a gigantic idler! Yet, as the ever-woven verdant warp and woof intermixed and hummed around him, the mighty idler seemed the cunning weaver; himself all woven over with the vines; every month assuming greener, fresher verdure; but himself a skeleton.
There are plenty of lazy people and plenty of slow-coaches, but a genuine idler is a rarity.
With ten dollars a man may, for a few hours, play the wealthy idler to perfection.
In sooth, my pretty idler, what are your own proper duties, unless to write to the handsome Raoul?
It was in a room in Paper Buildings--a row of goodly tenements, shaded in front by ancient trees, and looking, at the back, upon the Temple Gardens--that this, our idler, lounged; now taking up again the paper he had laid down a hundred times; now trifling with the fragments of his meal; now pulling forth his golden toothpick, and glancing leisurely about the room, or out at window into the trim garden walks, where a few early loiterers were already pacing to and fro.
Nicholson was ambitious for his family (in which, and the Disruption Principles, he entirely lived), and he hated to see a son of his play second fiddle to an idler. After some hesitation, he ordered that the friendship should cease - an unfair command, though seemingly inspired by the spirit of prophecy; and John, saying nothing, continued to disobey the order under the rose.
'The Rambler' and 'The Idler' altogether lack Addison's lightness of touch and of humor; for Johnson, thoroughly Puritan at heart, and dealing generally with the issues of personal conduct and responsibility, can never greatly relax his seriousness, while Addison, a man of the world, is content if he can produce some effect on society as a whole.
It is no easy task to understand unfamiliar blood; I hate the reading idlers.
He folded me in his great strong arms, and he gave me a kiss which must certainly have been heard by the idlers waiting for the bride and bridegroom outside the church door.
The result was that when the new-comer left the hotel with the cicerone, a man detached himself from the rest of the idlers, and without having been seen by the traveller, and appearing to excite no attention from the guide, followed the stranger with as much skill as a Parisian police agent would have used.