idle

idle is a 4-letter English word with 17 senses as intransitive verb, transitive verb, noun, verb, and adjective in the JumbleFix dictionary. One common meaning is: Of no account; useless; vain; trifling; unprofitable; thoughtless; silly; barren. Face value is 5 in Scrabble and 6 in Words With Friends. Use the entries below when you need a playable sense, a nearby word, or another arrangement of the same letters.

4 letters · Scrabble 5 · Words With Friends 6 · 17 senses

Definitions

1. superlative. Of no account; useless; vain; trifling; unprofitable; thoughtless; silly; barren.
2. superlative. Not called into active service; not turned to appropriate use; unemployed; as, idle hours.
3. superlative. Not employed; unoccupied with business; inactive; doing nothing; as, idle workmen.
4. superlative. Given rest and ease; averse to labor or employment; lazy; slothful; as, an idle fellow.
5. superlative. Light-headed; foolish.
6. intransitive verb. To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business.
7. transitive verb. To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume; -- often followed by away; as, to idle away an hour a day.
8. noun. the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling

   "the car engine was running at idle"

9. verb. run disconnected or idle

   "the engine is idling"

10. verb. be idle; exist in a changeless situation

    "The old man sat and stagnated on his porch"

    "He slugged in bed all morning"

    Synonyms: laze, slug, stagnate

11. adjective. not in active use

    "the machinery sat idle during the strike"

    "idle hands"

    Synonyms: unused

12. adjective. not in action or at work

    "an idle laborer"

    "idle drifters"

13. adjective. not having a job

    "idle carpenters"

    "jobless transients"

    Synonyms: jobless

14. adjective. not yielding a return

    "dead capital"

    "idle funds"

    Synonyms: dead

15. adjective. lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility

    "idle talk"

    "a loose tongue"

    Synonyms: loose

16. adjective. silly or trivial

    "idle pleasure"

    "light banter"

    Synonyms: light

17. adjective. without a basis in reason or fact

    "baseless gossip"

    "the allegations proved groundless"

    Synonyms: baseless, groundless, unfounded, unwarranted, wild

Synonyms

laze, slug, stagnate, unused, jobless, dead, loose, light, baseless, groundless, unfounded, unwarranted, wild

Anagrams

Other playable words that use exactly the letters in idle:

deil, deli, diel, eild, lide, lied

Common word forms

idled, idler, idles, idlest, idling, idleful, idlement, idleness

Words from these letters

If you are holding these tiles, the unscrambler for IDLE lists every valid word you can make from the same letters, including shorter plays.