Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

idle

/ˈaɪd(ə)l/ adjective, verb, noun, proper noun

Forms idles idling idled

  1. adjective (obsolete) Empty, vacant.
  2. adjective Not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity. “idle hours”
  3. adjective Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing in particular. “idle workmen”
  4. adjective Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful. “an idle fellow”
  5. adjective Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly. “an idle story;  idle talk;  idle rumor;  idle threats;  idle pleasures”
  6. adjective (obsolete) Light-headed; foolish.
  7. verb (transitive) To spend (time) in idleness; to waste; to consume.
  8. verb (intransitive) To lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business. “to idle in an IRC channel”
  9. verb (intransitive) Of an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over.
  10. verb (transitive) To cause (an engine) to idle (run at a slow speed, or out of gear). “The driver idled his engine until the car finally stalled.”
  11. verb (transitive, chiefly of a layoff or a labor strike) To make (workers, students, etc) idle; to leave without work.
  12. noun The state of idling, of being idle.
  13. noun (mechanical engineering) The lowest selectable thrust or power setting of an engine. “a lumpy idle”
  14. noun (gaming) An idle animation.
  15. noun (gaming) An idle game.
  16. proper noun A surname.
  17. proper noun A suburb in the City of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England (OS grid ref SE1737).
  18. proper noun A river, the River Idle in Nottinghamshire, England, which flows into the River Trent.

Synonyms

bare leer void dormant quiescent suspended abeyant at rest cessant dull fallow hibernating inactive inert languid latent nonactive passive silent sedent tick over laze slug stagnate baseless groundless unfounded unwarranted wild unused

Antonyms

run work busy

Etymology

From Middle English idel, ydel, from Old English īdel, from Proto-West Germanic *īdl, from Proto-Germanic *īdlaz. Cognate with Dutch ijdel (“vain, meaningless”), ijl (“rareified, skinny”), iel (“thin, slender”); German Low German iedel (“vain, idle”); German eitel (“vain, conceited”); and possibly Old Norse illr ("bad"; > English ill).

From Middle English idelen, from Old English īdlian, from Proto-West Germanic *īdlēn. Cognate with German eiteln (“to make empty, free up”).

From Middle English idel, ydel, from Old English īdel (“idleness”), from the adjective (see above).

Webster’s 1913

  1. adjective Of no account; useless; vain; trifling; unprofitable; thoughtless; silly; barren. "Deserts idle." Shak.
  2. adjective Not called into active service; not turned to appropriate use; unemployed; as, idle hours.
  3. verb To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business. Shak.
  4. verb To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume; --often followed by away; as, to idle away an hour a day.

Etymology [OE. idel, AS. idel vain, empty, useless; akin to OS. idal, D. ijdel, OHG. ital vain, empty, mere, G. eitel, Dan. & Sw. idel mere, pure, and prob. to Gr. Ether.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “idle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details

Sanskrit

Sanskrit dictionary entries whose meaning includes “idle” (best matches first).

All 41 Sanskrit matches →