idle

“You are not an idle passenger of history. You get to control the impact that technology has on you and your society.”

From Salon ● Jul. 13, 2026

In the dark workshops where cars would usually be built, men sat around while tools and wheels were idle.

From Barron's ● Jul. 5, 2026

The remaining 35% of idle capacity gives Meta an additional monetization lever.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026

It also designates all existing and active idle wells as “nonconforming uses,” meaning they may only operate during the phaseout period and are no longer compliant with current zoning.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 23, 2026

As they were waiting for orders, black men and women were too excited to sit idle.

From "A Few Red Drops: The Chicago Race Riot of 1919" by Claire Hartfield

There is an almost continuous succession of scenes in which Nicholson sketches this idler, lover, jokester, manipulator, con man, gambler, loner.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2023

Oh, that would be the uncle who willed his farm and estate to Onegin, a charming idler.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2020

What’s missing is a palpable grit, particularly in Whitted’s performance, that would help us to a belief in Hal’s head-spinning pivot from idler and carouser to beloved hero of the realm.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 10, 2019

Only time will tell which version of Sissoko Tottenham have got: the often sullen idler who irritated Newcastle fans or the inspirational player who so impressively raised his game in June.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 9, 2016

Lollaerd, from their peculiar hum in singing—lollen, to sing softly; but confused with M. E. loller, an idler; cf.

From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various

Shettleston is one of Britain’s poorest, idlest and sickest places; at 64, male life expectancy is 15 years below the national average and falling.

From Economist ● Jul. 10, 2014

On the idlest previous day in the history of the bureau, Feb. 25, 1932, there had been 56 licenses issued.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was the usual result of tittle-tattle, especially among the idlest and most numerous members of the community.

From The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi Volume the Second by Gozzi, Count Carlo

But I'll defy the sternest or the idlest man not to open the leaves of such a work as that when he first takes it out of his new dress-coat.

From The Struggles of Brown, Jones, and Robinson By One of the Firm by Trollope, Anthony

The subject was idlest village gossip, but it served to divert Hallam's thoughts from his impending errand, and he arrived at the office of the mill in good spirits.

From Reels and Spindles A Story of Mill Life by Merrill, Frank T. (Frank Thayer)

A carpenter whose own narrowboat is moored in a clump of four boats says that when one of his neighbours idles her older diesel engine, the exhaust seeps right into his boat, nearly choking him.

From BBC ● Aug. 21, 2023

A man drives by in a beat-up blue Camry, waving a green Seahawks helmet out the window as he idles along.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 20, 2020

She then idles outside the closed local library, so her child in middle school can pick up the Wi-Fi signal and do his homework.

From New York Times ● Oct. 9, 2018

It idles, it digresses, it repeats, it makes no progress.

From Slate ● May 3, 2018

A line of black town cars idles at the curb while their drivers smoke and chat with each other.

From "The Sun Is Also a Star" by Nicola Yoon

His girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, idled their car in a disabled parking spot, accompanied by the couple’s other child.

From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2026

In 1878, confronting the lowest prices for pig iron since colonial times, American ironmasters wondered if the smokestacks on their idled blast furnaces might serve a higher use as astronomical observatories.

From The Wall Street Journal ● May 29, 2026

He voiced his rage over an empty reservoir, idled fire trucks and what he called dangerous brush clearance policies.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026

Then there is MP, which restarted the Mountain Pass mine in 2018 External link after it had idled in 2015.

From Barron's ● May 18, 2026

The rest idled along, hopping a few yards and then pausing to nibble or to pass droppings on the warm, sunny grass.

From "Watership Down: A Novel" by Richard Adams

On a recent Tuesday evening, a 16 Handles store in Manhattan was filled with teens idling at tables and charging their phones.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 19, 2026

The officer walked up to my idling Impala and informed me that my left taillight was out.

From Salon ● Jul. 3, 2026

It seems these days that almost everyone there has seen or felt the aftermath of an immigration raid: cars with shattered windows left idling and businesses emptied of their usual employees and patrons.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 22, 2026

"I don't think anyone who is struggling with fuel costs would benefit from sitting in an idling queue with their engines turning over and their fuel being wasted."

From BBC ● Apr. 14, 2026

I see three boys skateboarding, a pick-up truck idling a few spaces over, and a handful of road trippers wandering into McDonald’s for a bathroom break.

From "South of Somewhere" by Kalena Miller