Dormant vs Idle - What's the difference?
dormant | idle | Synonyms |
Inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended.
* Burke
(heraldry) In a sleeping posture; distinguished from couchant.
(lb) Empty, vacant.
Not turned to appropriate use; not occupied.
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Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing.
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*:Molly the dairymaid came a little way from the rickyard, and said she would pluck the pigeon that very night after work. She was always ready to do anything for us boys; and we could never quite make out why they scolded her so for an idle hussy indoors. It seemed so unjust. Looking back, I recollect she had very beautiful brown eyes.
Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
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*:“I don't mean all of your friends—only a small proportion—which, however, connects your circle with that deadly, idle , brainless bunch—the insolent chatterers at the opera, the gorged dowagers, the worn-out, passionless men, the enervated matrons of the summer capital,!”
Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly.
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(lb) Light-headed; foolish.
:(Ford)
To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume.
To lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business.
* 1939 , Joan Evans, Chateaubriand (page 32)
Of an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over.
As adjectives the difference between dormant and idle
is that dormant is inactive, sleeping, asleep, suspended while idle is empty, vacant.As a verb idle is
to spend in idleness; to waste; to consume.dormant
English
Alternative forms
* dormaunt (obsolete)Adjective
(-)- Grass goes dormant during the winter, waiting for spring before it grows again.
- The bank account was dormant ; there had been no transactions in months.
- This volcano is dormant but not extinct.
- It is by lying dormant a long time, or being very rarely exercised, that arbitrary power steals upon a people.
- a lion dormant
Antonyms
* active * active, extinctExternal links
* * *Anagrams
* ----idle
English
(wikipedia idle)Adjective
(en adjective)Derived terms
* idle hands are the devil's workshop * idle pulley * idle wheelSynonyms
* See alsoVerb
(idl)- to idle in an IRC channel
- He had already heard of the young man's projected journey — evidently the Comte de Combourg had written many letters while his son idled at St. Malo