idle

Goncalves said he would start an idle blast furnace at the company’s Dearborn, Mich., plant if automakers committed to using more U.S.-made steel.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 20, 2026

The process is somewhat like monitoring a car engine to determine whether it continues running at high speed even when the vehicle is supposed to be idle.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 19, 2026

A few pieces of heavy equipment sit idle on the vast cleared tract.

From Barron's ● Oct. 19, 2026

After sitting idle for months at a maintenance facility, it relocated in early July to waters off a strip of coastline known as the Kalma Peninsula.

From BBC ● Oct. 17, 2026

Her furrowed-brow, thinking-hard expression looked not unlike Penelope’s, although Penelope had no way of knowing that, as she was not the sort of person who spent her idle hours staring into mirrors.

From "The Interrupted Tale" by Maryrose Wood

Ripley, a slacker and a con man grinding out a living in postwar New York, is sent to Italy to try to persuade a trust-funded idler to come home and take over the family business.

From New York Times ● Apr. 4, 2024

There is an almost continuous succession of scenes in which Nicholson sketches this idler, lover, jokester, manipulator, con man, gambler, loner.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 25, 2023

Batman co-creator Bob Kane wrote in his 1998 autobiography “Batman and Me”: “The rich foppish Don Diego, Zorro’s alter ego, inspired Bruce Wayne’s facade of being a bored, wealthy idler and playboy.”

From Washington Post ● Dec. 29, 2020

Oh, that would be the uncle who willed his farm and estate to Onegin, a charming idler.

From Seattle Times ● Jan. 9, 2020

I am neither fool nor idler, and know well how to toil in the fields, to winnow and to reap.

From Aucassin & Nicolette And Other Mediaeval Romances and Legends by Eugene Mason

Shettleston is one of Britain’s poorest, idlest and sickest places; at 64, male life expectancy is 15 years below the national average and falling.

From Economist ● Jul. 10, 2014

On the idlest previous day in the history of the bureau, Feb. 25, 1932, there had been 56 licenses issued.

From Time Magazine Archive

There was the usual result of tittle-tattle, especially among the idlest and most numerous members of the community.

From The Memoirs of Count Carlo Gozzi Volume the Second by Count Carlo Gozzi

The suggestion that an attack from the Confederate forces at Corinth was imminent, would have been dismissed as the idlest and weakest of apprehensions.

From History of Morgan's Cavalry by Basil Wilson Duke

It ought to be rolled, but we have the idlest gardener boy in the world.

From The Happy Warrior by A. S. M. (Arthur Stuart-Menteth) Hutchinson

Your internal machinery fires when you want to sleep and idles when you need to be sharp.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 5, 2026

As I sit in the car with C after the second ICE vehicle sped off, the remaining Wagoneer idles midblock—right in front of C’s house.

From Slate ● Jan. 16, 2026

The strike idles many entertainment industry workers, delaying the start of the television season until November.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 4, 2023

An on-board computer steers the kite into the prevailing current, then idles it at slack tide, maintaining a constant depth in the water column.

From BBC ● Nov. 28, 2021

Connor and I sit in the back seat as the car idles.

From "The Sea in Winter" by Christine Day

That list includes everything from design changes during construction to supply-chain challenges that at times idled a huge on-site labor force.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026

The Vibe draws random remarks of praise all the time: Shortly after we moved, a construction worker in Ann Arbor waved me down as I idled at a stoplight.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 13, 2026

His girlfriend, Britany Jacobs, idled their car in a disabled parking spot, accompanied by the couple’s other child.

From Slate ● Jun. 4, 2026

He voiced his rage over an empty reservoir, idled fire trucks and what he called dangerous brush clearance policies.

From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2026

The red Toyota pickup truck idled past us.

From "The Kite Runner" by Khaled Hosseini

Owner-operator Deol uses battery-powered electric air conditioning systems installed on both his trucks so he can turn off the engines and avoid idling.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 7, 2026

His comments on the sidelines of G20 talks come as Russian and Ukrainian strikes targeting Black Sea ports have been wrecking and idling agricultural export capacity more quickly than trade flows can recover.

From Barron's ● Oct. 1, 2026

Llyr Gruffydd, cabinet minister for rural resilience and sustainability, said the £20 fixed fine for idling was "insufficient", and not being used "in the way everyone might envision it".

From BBC ● Sep. 29, 2026

He preened, grabbed his oversized scissors and opened his mouth to boast, but no one could hear a single word over the deafening roar of Marine One’s idling engines.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026

The four behind the leader slouched, seeming not so much menacing now as idling, waiting for their next command.

From "The Strangers" by Margaret Peterson Haddix