How to Use idle in a Sentence

idle

1 of 2 adjective

• There has been a lot of idle speculation about what might happen, but no one really knows.
• The 13 or so ships trapped in the harbor will sit idle for weeks.
  — Edward Lotterman, Twin Cities, 31 Mar. 2024
• But for now, people’s skates have been packed away, and the group’s shovels have been idle.
  — Globe Staff, BostonGlobe.com, 30 Jan. 2023
• Ships sat idle elsewhere, unsure where and when to dock.
  — Jenny Gross, New York Times, 26 Mar. 2024
• Those with cars idle bumper to bumper along a two-mile, softly sloping bridge.
  — Liam Dillon, Los Angeles Times, 18 Apr. 2023
• But the Sox still didn’t want to tie up a 40-man roster spot on a pitcher who had been idle for three years.
  — Peter Abraham, BostonGlobe.com, 22 Feb. 2023
• Winnipeg was idle and Seattle pulled within 2 points of them for best record in the league.
  — Dylan Bumbarger, oregonlive, 18 Mar. 2023
• This lack of rulemaking action doesn’t mean the SEC has been idle.
  — Marisa Coppel, Fortune Crypto, 29 June 2023
• There's plenty of torque on tap to pull smoothly in any gear from any speed above the engine's 1200-rpm idle.
  — Frank Markus, Car and Driver, 1 Aug. 2023
• Students who are lonely and idle need something to fill their days.
  — Frederick M. Hess, National Review, 21 Dec. 2023
• In a twist from the norm, Butler then started the fourth, with the Heat having been idle the previous three days.
  — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 30 Apr. 2023
• But there is always one type of game that is installed and ready to go for the next trip or idle couch moment: a roguelite deck-builder.
  — Kevin Purdy, Ars Technica, 3 Jan. 2024
• The state also collects idle well fees, which can run up to $1,500 a year for each inactive well.
  — Tony Briscoe, Los Angeles Times, 16 Dec. 2023
• BelAir was struck by footage of inmates standing idle and had an idea.
  — Rick Maese, Anchorage Daily News, 23 Feb. 2023
• On the Egyptian side, trucks laden with food and supplies idle, awaiting an opening.
  — Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times, 18 Oct. 2023
• Because of the income stream from toner cartridges alone, the shop was never idle nor broke.
  — Lexy Perez, The Hollywood Reporter, 9 May 2023
• Fey and Waters joined Franzese and Seyfried to make idle chitchat as the casting folks set up the cameras inside the audition room.
  — Maureen Lee Lenker, EW.com, 9 Jan. 2024
• Tour buses sat idle through the shutdown, and drivers found other gigs.
  — Seth Yudof, Rolling Stone, 16 Oct. 2023
• Schmidt had come up with the music in just a few minutes during an idle moment in a rehearsal hall.
  — Neil Genzlinger, BostonGlobe.com, 13 Aug. 2023
• The watchdog issued the penalty over systems that tracked the idle time of workers’ scanners and measured the speed of scanning.
  — David Meyer, Fortune, 23 Jan. 2024
• Instead of numbing your brain by playing Candy Crunch, try and see where your idle mind takes you.
  — Tim Brinkhof, Discover Magazine, 5 July 2023
• Both schools are idle this week as the regular season concludes.
  — Ben Thomas | [e-mail], al, 25 Oct. 2022
• Do that too long, and you will be disconnected for going idle.
  — Paul Tassi, Forbes, 22 Mar. 2023
• Too bad the Eagles were idle and couldn't provide those aging Fins with a reason to pop more champagne.
  — Nate Davis, USA TODAY, 24 Oct. 2022
• The United States has largely stood idle as Haiti’s crisis deepens.
  — Jason Motlagh, Rolling Stone, 26 Nov. 2023
• No navy can afford to keep 1,000 billets filled with idle soldiers for seven years.
  — Kyle Mizokami, Popular Mechanics, 19 Apr. 2023
• Dear Carolyn: My spouse and I spend a fair portion of our idle time internetting on our phones.
  — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 4 June 2023
• But when Jan’s will puts Siti at the forefront of the family estate, ideals prove to be idle and blood thicker than water.
  — Naman Ramachandran, Variety, 7 Dec. 2023
• The cast of Yellowstone was hardly idle during the show’s prolonged hiatus.
  — Meghan Overdeep, Southern Living, 6 Feb. 2024
• These standards do not sit idle as decoration on a break room wall.
  — The Salt Lake Tribune, 27 Oct. 2022

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idle

2 of 2 verb

• A group of boys idled in the doorway.
• The cars idled in traffic.
• The factory has been idled by the strike.
• She left the engine idling for a few seconds before she turned it off.
• Thousands of workers have been idled by the bad economy.
• The factory closed, idling several hundred workers.
• Behold the Maseratis in the queue: eager to race, forced to idle.
  — Rico Gagliano, New York Times, 3 Aug. 2023
• Many automakers have had to idle plants for a week or two at a time in the first half of 2021.
  — New York Times, 15 July 2021
• Cars should not be left to idle in garages attached to homes, even if the garage door is left open.
  — NBC News, 29 Apr. 2021
• Now the engine idles at nearly 2,000 rpm and feels even more unhinged as the revs rise.
  — Tim Pitt, Robb Report, 11 July 2023
• Nissan and Suzuki in Japan will idle some plants this month.
  — Neil Winton, Forbes, 1 June 2021
• The family came home one night to find a car idling in their driveway.
  — Kevin Sullivan, Anchorage Daily News, 21 Aug. 2023
• The gas plants are paid to idle and be ready, at significant cost.
  — James Conca, Forbes, 7 July 2021
• The pandemic forced them to idle factories for two months in 2020.
  — Neal E. Boudette, New York Times, 4 Jan. 2023
• Both pickups are built at Wentzville Assembly which was idled during the strike for the full 46 days.
  — Jamie L. Lareau, Detroit Free Press, 3 Jan. 2024
• This one, on the second night of a back-to-back against a Warriors team idle the day before, had that feeling.
  — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 29 Oct. 2022
• However, the game doesn’t boot players who idle for too long.
  — Eric Ravenscraft, Wired, 26 Dec. 2021
• Staffing shortfalls forced Alta to idle the Wildcat lift for a day and close a restaurant for a few more.
  — Brian Maffly, The Salt Lake Tribune, 29 Dec. 2021
• His home studio overlooks half a dozen speedboats idled at a dock.
  — Jeff Weiss, Los Angeles Times, 17 Apr. 2023
• The earthquake has also cast doubt over Japan’s push to restart nuclear plants that have been idled.
  — Reuters, NBC News, 5 Jan. 2024
• Car makers have had to idle plants for a lack of chips and prices of some electronic goods are rising as a result.
  — Aaron Tilley, WSJ, 16 July 2021
• The world-wide chip shortage has caused car makers to idle plants and has led to higher prices on some electronics.
  — Meghan Bobrowsky, WSJ, 21 Oct. 2021
• The courteous thing to do is reduce your speed to idle rather than blowing past others at high speed.
  — Matt Williams, Dallas News, 1 July 2022
• Those still in the village are tending livestock and openly idling away their weekdays.
  — Hari Kumar Atul Loke, New York Times, 28 June 2023
• While not all members of the WGA are currently working, the strike could soon idle thousands of other workers on the sets of shows and movies.
  — Chris Isidore, CNN, 2 May 2023
• The suspect, who wasn't caught, was spotted on security video idling in front of the crime scene for about 15 minutes.
  — Chris Eberhart, Fox News, 25 Dec. 2023
• In the Bills’ 31-10 victory over Dallas last weekend, the engine was allowed to idle.
  — Jeff Miller, Los Angeles Times, 22 Dec. 2023
• Parking lot lights are on dusk-to-dawn sensors, the venue composts, and prepaid parking reduces the time cars spend idling.
  — Taylor Mims, Billboard, 29 Mar. 2024
• Three crossings have been designated in the area for watercraft to idle over the pipe; they’re marked with buoys found on a map the DNR issued.
  — Michelle L. Quinn, Chicago Tribune, 21 June 2023
• From a fever pitch, everyone goes back to idling while Sunny tries to undo the disaster.
  — Amos Barshad, WIRED, 8 Aug. 2023

Last Updated: 3 May 2024