IDLER

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does idler mean? 

• IDLER (noun)
  The noun IDLER has 1 sense:

1. person who does no work

  Familiarity information: IDLER used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• IDLER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Person who does no work

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bum; do-nothing; idler; layabout; loafer

Context example:

a lazy bum

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

nonworker (a person who does nothing)

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

clock watcher (a worker preoccupied with the arrival of quitting time)

couch potato (an idler who spends much time on a couch (usually watching television))

dallier; dilly-dallier; dillydallier; lounger; mope (someone who wastes time)

dawdler; drone; laggard; lagger; poke; trailer (someone who takes more time than necessary; someone who lags behind)

daydreamer; woolgatherer (someone who indulges in idle or absentminded daydreaming)

goldbrick; good-for-naught; good-for-nothing; goof-off; ne'er-do-well; no-account (an idle worthless person)

lazybones (a lazy person)

lie-abed; slugabed (a person who stays in bed until a relatively late hour)

loon (a worthless lazy fellow)

shirker; slacker (a person who shirks his work or duty (especially one who tries to evade military service in wartime))

slug; sluggard (an idle slothful person)

spiv (a person without employment who makes money by various dubious schemes; goes about smartly dressed and having a good time)

sunbather (someone who basks in the sunshine in order to get a suntan)

trifler (one who behaves lightly or not seriously)

whittler (someone who whittles (usually as an idle pastime))

Derivation:

idle (be idle; exist in a changeless situation)

 Context examples 

I fear that he will become an idler unless we yield the point and permit him to enter on the profession which he has selected.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Mr. and Mrs. Morse had condemned him for an idler and a shirk and through Ruth had urged that he take a clerk's position in an office.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I lounged up the side aisle like any other idler who has dropped into a church.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)