idle

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. adj. Not employed or busy: idle carpenters. See Synonyms at inactive.
2. adj. Avoiding work or employment; lazy: shiftless, idle youth. See Synonyms at lazy.
3. adj. Not in use or operation: idle hands.
4. adj. Lacking substance, value, or basis. See Synonyms at baseless, vain.
5. v. To pass time without working or while avoiding work.
6. v. To move lazily and without purpose.
7. v. To run at a slow speed or out of gear. Used of a motor vehicle.
8. v. To pass (time) without working or while avoiding work; waste: idle the afternoon away.
9. v. To make or cause to be unemployed or inactive.
10. v. To cause (a motor, for example) to idle.
11. n. A state of idling. Used of a motor vehicle: an engine running quietly at idle.
12. n. A mechanism for regulating the speed at which an engine runs at rest: set the idle higher to keep the motor from stalling.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. Empty; vacant; not occupied: as, idle hours.
2. Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing.
3. In a state of disuse; remaining unused.
4. Useless; ineffectual; vain; bootless; unavailing; futile: as, idle rage.
5. Of no importance; trivial; irrelevant; flippant; pointless; unprofitable: as, an idle story.
6. Acting idly or unconcernedly; careless; indifferent.
7. Slothful; given to rest and ease; averse to labor; lazy: as, an idle fellow.
8. Wandering in mind; light-headed: an occasional use in old plays.
9. n. Idleness; indolence.
10. n. An indolent person.
11. To spend or waste time in inaction or without employment.
12. To spend in idleness; waste: generally followed by away: as, to idle away time.
13. Of machinery, doing no direct work; merely changing the direction of motion: as, an idle gear; also, running merely to carry transmission-elements: as, an idle pulley (which see).

Wiktionary

1. adj. obsolete Empty, vacant.
2. adj. Not turned to appropriate use; not occupied.
3. adj. Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing.
4. adj. Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
5. adj. Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly.
6. v. transitive To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume.
7. v. intransitive To lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business.
8. v. intransitive Of an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. adj. Of no account; useless; vain; trifling; unprofitable; thoughtless; silly; barren.
2. adj. Not called into active service; not turned to appropriate use; unemployed.
3. adj. Not employed; unoccupied with business; inactive; doing nothing.
4. adj. Given rest and ease; averse to labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
5. adj. obsolete Light-headed; foolish.
6. v. To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business.
7. v. To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume; -- often followed by away.

WordNet 3.0

1. adj. lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility
2. adj. not in action or at work
3. adj. not having a job
4. adj. not yielding a return
5. v. be idle; exist in a changeless situation
6. v. run disconnected or idle
7. adj. without a basis in reason or fact
8. adj. not in active use
9. n. the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling
10. adj. silly or trivial