idly
Without specific purpose, intent or effortWithout specific purpose, intent or effort.
» We can't sit idly by.
CM · Tatoeba · CC BY 2.0 FRMeaning
2 sensesWithout specific purpose, intent or effort.
I idly played with the paper, not even realizing I was folding it into a paper airplane.
In an idle manner.
in an idle manner
Examples
15 sentencesWe can't sit idly by.
He often spends his time idly.
We can't just stand idly by.
ruМы не можем безучастно стоять в стороне. — Wezel
deWie können nicht tatenlos zusehen. — al_ex_an_der
You idly listened to your friends chat.
She looked idly out of the window.
deSie schaute untätig aus dem Fenster. — Esperantostern
Translations
1 languagesOrigin
From Middle English idely, ydelly, idelliche, from Old English īdellīċe, equivalent to idlFrom Middle English idely, ydelly, idelliche, from Old English īdellīċe, equivalent to idle + -ly.
Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0 · source
Forms
more idly, most idlySynonyms
1 synonyms- in an idle manner:lazily
Word family
1 related wordsLessons for this word
2 lessons- A2Comparatives — Because it has a comparative form
- A2Adverbs of manner — Because it is an -ly adverb
See also
neighbours in the dictionaryDictionary text adapted from Wiktionary (Wiktionary contributors, CC BY-SA 4.0) and Open English WordNet / Princeton WordNet (CC BY 4.0, WordNet License); shared under CC BY-SA 4.0. Example sentences and recordings are credited where they appear.