twiddle

"It's July 2023. Building out the leadership of that operation today, so they can sit around and twiddle their thumbs for the next six months would be nuts," he said.

From Reuters ● Jul. 18, 2023

“You know it’s going to end. So you can’t just sit around and twiddle your thumbs.”

From New York Times ● Sep. 2, 2021

We have no more time to twiddle our collective thumbs.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 11, 2020

Michael Connelly’s detective is never one to twiddle thumbs, of course.

From Salon ● Apr. 13, 2019

“I twiddle about with lines of verse now and then, but it’s only a hobby. In any case, thank you for indulging me.”

From "Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children" by Ransom Riggs

For his part, Adam twiddles his own curly locks with one raised hand, seemingly in nervous anticipation.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 18, 2024

Liberated from chronology and fact, the comedy-drama twiddles the timeline of Catherine’s career and marriage.

From New York Times ● Dec. 26, 2021

Facebook Twitter Pinterest In Spike Jonze’s Her, a goofy Joaquin Phoenix twiddles his way into an idyllic relationship with his charming operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 28, 2016

“We can’t afford to allow more devastation to be caused to the park while the Park Service twiddles their thumbs trying to come up with an expensive plan,” Gosar said in a statement this week.

From Washington Times ● Feb. 26, 2016

He twiddles his thumbs and takes a few measured breaths.

From "Dumplin'" by Julie Murphy

You could follow the text at the bottom of the screen, but most people just twiddled their thumbs and waited.

From BBC ● Nov. 1, 2025

They all largely twiddled their thumbs as accusations mounted that much was unhealthy in the GET-THIN campaign.

From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 17, 2021

Alma’s poltergeist not only twiddled necklaces but sprang them from shop counters; it whipped saucers across rooms, upended eiderdowns, spun rings on to fingers.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 19, 2020

Ever since Singapore, Kim’s negotiators—many of whom have been at their jobs since the arms talks with the Clinton administration, a quarter-century ago—have pretty much twiddled their thumbs in their sessions with the U.S. team.

From Slate ● Oct. 4, 2018

Mr. Hrbik frowned and twiddled his pencil and said nothing.

From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood

“It’s not like we’re twiddling our thumbs and trying to get some money. This is a very serious condition,” he said.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 14, 2026

Meanwhile Miami, which had been ranked behind Notre Dame, and like the Irish, had been inactive and twiddling thumbs over conference championship weekend, vaulted over South Bend.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 8, 2025

The court granted cert to the case on Wednesday, after twiddling its thumbs for 16 days, and it scheduled oral arguments for April 22.

From Slate ● Mar. 2, 2024

"After coming out of Eurovision, it meant I wasn't twiddling my thumbs. I had a whole album to promote so we had to keep going".

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2023

Well, it’s my idea that in all these interludes, whenever Dave became a psychiatric case, he went off into a moronic maze, spending his time twiddling his fingers.”

From "I, Robot" by Isaac Asimov