idle away

In al-Souq al-Arabi, labourers, electricians, and others who would typically be at building sites idle away the time drinking tea and playing board games while they wait for work.

Led by their distracted, emotionless mother, known only as the Matriatch, they idle away their days, torturing and mocking one another.

“Not very wise, Hermes. What proper employment can they engage in, that way? I foretell the future; Aesculapius cures diseases; you are a good messenger—but these two—are they to idle away their whole time?”

They idle away their time in buildings named after E.U. founding fathers — Altiero Spinelli, Paul-Henri Spaak — whom the Brexiteers confess they had never heard of before.

Chen’s efforts are something of a novelty in her home village, where many of the elderly residents idle away their days playing go, a kind of Chinese chess, on the sidewalk or sitting on stoops solving the problems of the world.