Abstinence from labor or employment; the state of a person who is unemployed in labor, or unoccupied in business; the state of doing nothing. Idleness is the parent of vice. Through the idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. Ecclesiastes 10:18.

Aversion to labor; reluctance to be employed, or to exertion either of body or mind; laziness; sloth; sluggishness. This is properly laziness; but idleness is often the effect of laziness, and sometimes this word may be used for it.

Unimportance; trivialness. Apes of idleness.

Inefficacy; uselessness.

Barrenness; worthlessness.

Emptiness; foolishness; infatuation; as idleness of brain.