EN

Synonyms for idle

84 synonyms
15 antonyms
5 meanings

adjective
verb
noun

Most common

frivolous foolish vain trifling inactive unoccupied slothful unfounded

Synonyms by meaning

Adjective

1. Frivolous — of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly

frivolous, foolish, vain, trifling, unimportant, fruitless, empty, trivial, futile, useless, unprofitable, pointless, silly, worthless, barren, insignificant, petty, ineffectual, puerile, unavailing, abortive, bootless

2. Inactive — not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity

inactive, unoccupied, inert, slow, quiet, fallow, quiescent, dormant, passive, languid, vacant, suspended, latent, dull

3. Slothful — averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful

slothful, lazy, indolent, sluggish, do-nothing, lackadaisical, lethargic, work-shy, otiose, bone-idle UK IE, swear, stagnant, torpid

4. Unfounded

unfounded, groundless, unsupported, waste, baseless, wild, ungrounded, unwarranted

Other

unemployed, unused, void, jobless, dead, resting, loose, light, bare, fatuous, unwise, asinine

Verb

1. Laze

laze, stagnate, slug dated

Other

while, loiter, tick over, loaf, vegetate, dick around vulgar slang

Noun

standstill, doddle, incremental game, lear, dolly, bludge slang AU NZ

Antonyms

essential, prudent, subtle

All antonyms of idle →

Definitions

adj. 1
Not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity.
My computer hibernates after it has been idle for 30 minutes.
adj. 2
Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
v. 1
To spend (time) in idleness; to waste; to consume.
n. 1
The state of idling, of being idle.

Related words

Word family: idledom idlehood idleness idleship idling idly idler
Phrases: idle game idle time idle wheel

Forms

Plural: idles → standstills, doddles, lears, dollies…
Past participle: idled
e.g. idled → lazed, stagnated, slugged, whiled…

Choose the right word

Idle or Idel?

Idle in all uses rests upon its root meaning, as derived from the Anglo-Saxon idel, which signifies vain, empty, useless.

J. C. Fernald, English Synonyms and Antonyms (1914)

Example sentences

empty An empty stomach doesn't help on the mental front.
useless There's nothing in here but a lot of useless junk.
unprofitable No one ever said smut was unprofitable.
trifling Their trouble stems from a trifling matter.
inactive This volcano has been inactive for hundreds of years.
unoccupied Paul checked the stall to see that it was unoccupied.

Popularity over time

Word	1850 → 2019	Trend
idle		falling
empty		rising
useless		steady
unprofitable		falling
trifling		steady
inactive		falling

Use in printed books, per decade from 1850 to 2019.

By length

4 letters: dead¹, slow¹, wild¹, lazy², bare¹, void¹, dull¹, vain¹, loaf¹, slug¹, lear¹, laze
5 letters: while¹, light¹, waste¹, quiet², empty², swear¹, loose¹, silly², petty², dolly², inert²
6 letters: vacant², unused², futile², barren², latent², unwise², fallow², loiter², doddle, torpid², otiose³, bludge
7 letters: useless², passive², foolish², resting², trivial³, dormant², jobless², asinine³, languid², puerile², fatuous³
8 letters: inactive³, stagnant², sluggish², baseless², trifling², abortive³, stagnate², indolent³, slothful, vegetate³, bootless
9 letters: suspended³, pointless², worthless², frivolous³, unfounded³, fruitless², lethargic³, quiescent³
10 letters: unemployed³, standstill², unoccupied⁴, groundless², ungrounded, unavailing⁴
11 letters: unimportant⁴, unwarranted⁴, unsupported⁴, ineffectual⁵
12 letters: unprofitable⁵
13 letters: insignificant⁵, lackadaisical⁵

The small number after each word is its number of syllables (lazy² = 2 syllables).

In other languages

Français: oiseux
Italiano: ozioso
Deutsch: unnütz