IDLENESS

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does idleness mean? 

• IDLENESS (noun)
  The noun IDLENESS has 3 senses:

1. having no employment

2. the quality of lacking substance or value

3. the trait of being idle out of a reluctance to work

  Familiarity information: IDLENESS used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IDLENESS (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having no employment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

idleness; idling; loafing

Hypernyms ("idleness" is a kind of...):

inactivity (being inactive; being less active)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "idleness"):

dolce far niente (carefree idleness)

Derivation:

idle (not in active use)

idle (not having a job)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The quality of lacking substance or value

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

groundlessness; idleness

Context example:

the groundlessness of their report was quickly recognized

Hypernyms ("idleness" is a kind of...):

ineptitude; worthlessness (having no qualities that would render it valuable or useful)

Derivation:

idle (without a basis in reason or fact)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The trait of being idle out of a reluctance to work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

faineance; idleness

Hypernyms ("idleness" is a kind of...):

indolence; laziness (inactivity resulting from a dislike of work)

Derivation:

idle (not in action or at work)

 Context examples 

She did most heartily grieve over the idleness of her childhood—and sat down and practised vigorously an hour and a half.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Besides, that would be all recreation and indulgence, without the wholesome alloy of labour, and I do not like to eat the bread of idleness.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Partly from curiosity and partly from idleness, I went into the lecturing room, which M. Waldman entered shortly after.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It checked the idleness of one, and the business of the other.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

On the first page there were only some scraps of writing, such as a man with a pen in his hand might make for idleness or practice.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

In town I believe he chiefly lived, but his studying the law was a mere pretence, and being now free from all restraint, his life was a life of idleness and dissipation.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Meanwhile we can thank our lucky fate which has rescued us for a few short hours from the insufferable fatigues of idleness.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I really am quite ashamed of my idleness; but in this horrid place one can find time for nothing.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Beth kept on, with only slight relapses into idleness or grieving.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

“The boy will be idle there,” said Miss Murdstone, looking into a pickle-jar, “and idleness is the root of all evil. But, to be sure, he would be idle here—or anywhere, in my opinion.”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)