Emily Dickinson Lexicon

I'DLE, a. [Sax. idel, ydel, vain, empty; G. eitel, mere, pure, idle, frivolous; D. ydel, vain, empty, idle; Dan. and Sw. idel, mere, pure, unmixed. See Addle. Class Dl, No. 6, 16, 25, 29.]

1. Not employed; unoccupied with business; inactive; doing nothing. Why stand ye here all the day idle? 1 Matt. XX. To be idle, is to be vicious. Rambler.
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. Down their idle weapons dropped. Milton.
6. Unfruitful; barren; not productive of good. Of antres vast and idle desarts. Shak Idle weeds. [Obs.] Shak.
7. Trifling; vain; of no importance; as, an idle story; an idle reason, idle arguments. Hooker. Dryden. Swift.
8. Unprofitable; not tending to edification. Every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give an account thereof in the day of judgment. Matth. xii. 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 can not be lazy.