idleness
/ˈʌɪdlnəs
/noun [mass noun]
1Laziness; indolence: he was punished for his idleness at school...
- Look up that invaluable book, Scots Thesaurus, and you will find four or five pages given over to words denoting idleness and laziness, all contemptuous.
- They are saying that due to their idleness and lethargy they are not taking water.
- The law was against loitering, though it may as well have been against idleness and sloth.
Synonyms
laziness, indolence, slothfulness, sloth, shiftlessness, inertia, sluggishness, lethargy, languor, torpidity, torpor;
remissness, negligence, slackness, laxity
French archaic fainéance
rare otiosity, hebetude
inactivity, inaction, unemployment, rest, repose
1.1A state of inaction; inactivity: we suffered a period of enforced idleness...
- The crowded huts, the waiting for food handouts, the idleness are steadily taking their toll.
- I don't have much to do at work, which leads to long periods of idleness.
- Only the intrusions of his neighbour, Mrs Mac, detract from a life of idleness.