IDLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does idling mean? 

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

1. having no employment

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

 Dictionary entry details 

• IDLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Having no employment

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

idleness; idling; loafing

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

inactivity (being inactive; being less active)

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

dolce far niente (carefree idleness)

Derivation:

idle (be idle; exist in a changeless situation)

 Context examples 

That is a very foolish trick, Fanny, to be idling away all the evening upon a sofa.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

So after idling away an hour, they drove home again, and having paid his respects to Mrs. Carrol, Laurie left them, promising to return in the evening.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

He has been idling all this term, and he must look forward with dread to the examination.

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

Neglect it—go on as heretofore, craving, whining, and idling—and suffer the results of your idiocy, however bad and insuperable they may be.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)