King James Bible Dictionary

I'DLE, adjective

1. Not employed; unoccupied with business; inactive; doing nothing.

Why stand ye here all the day idle? Matthew 20:3.

To be idle is to be vicious.

2. Slothful; given to rest and ease; averse to labor or employment; lazy; as an idle man; an idle fellow.

3. Affording leisure; vacant; not occupied; as idle time; idle hours.

4. Remaining unused; unemployed; applied to things; as, my sword or spear is idle

5. Useless; vain; ineffectual; as idle rage.

6. Unfruitful; barren; not productive of good.

Of antres vast and idle desarts.

Idle weeds.

7. Trifling; vain; of no importance; as an idle story; an idle reason; idle arguments.

8. Unprofitable; not tending to edification.

Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Matthew 12:36.

Idle differs from lazy; the latter implying constitutional or habitual aversion or indisposition to labor or action, sluggishness; whereas idle in its proper sense, denotes merely unemployed. An industrious man may be idle but he cannot be lazy.

I'DLE, verb intransitive To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business.

To idle away, in a transitive sense, to spend in idleness; as, to idle away time.

I'DLEHEADED, adjective [idle and head.] Foolish; unreasonable.

1. Delirious; infatuated. [Little used.]

General references
Proverbs 6:6; Proverbs 6:9-11; Proverbs 10:4-5; Proverbs 10:26; Proverbs 12:9; Proverbs 12:24; Proverbs 12:27; Proverbs 13:4; Proverbs 14:23; Proverbs 15:19; Proverbs 18:9; Proverbs 19:15; Proverbs 19:24; Proverbs 20:4; Proverbs 20:13; Proverbs 21:25; Proverbs 23:21; Proverbs 24:30-31; Proverbs 24:33-34; Proverbs 26:13-16; Proverbs 22:13; Ecclesiastes 4:5; Ecclesiastes 10:18; Isaiah 56:10; Ezekiel 16:49; Luke 19:20-25; Matthew 20:6-7; Acts 17:21; 2 Thessalonians 3:10-11; 1 Timothy 5:13
Slothfulness; Industry

I'DLENESS, noun Abstinence from labor or employment; the state of a person who is unemployed in labor, or unoccupied in business; the state of doing nothing. idleness is the parent of vice.

Through the idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. Ecclesiastes 10:18.

1. Aversion to labor; reluctance to be employed, or to exertion either of body or mind; laziness; sloth; sluggishness. This is properly laziness; but idleness is often the effect of laziness, and sometimes this word may be used for it.

2. Unimportance; trivialness.

Apes of idleness

3. Inefficacy; uselessness. [Little used.]

4. Barrenness; worthlessness. [Little used.]

5. Emptiness; foolishness; infatuation; as idleness of brain. [Little used.]

I'DLEPATED, adjective Idleheaded; stupid.

I'DLER, noun One who does nothing; one who spends his time in inaction, or without being engaged in business.

1. A lazy person; a sluggard.

I'DLESBY, noun An idle or lazy person. [Not used.]