If people who were working are idle, they have no jobs or work.
4,000 workers have been idle for 12 of the first 27 weeks of this year.
4千名工人在今年最初的27个星期中有12个星期无事可干。
If machines or factories are idle, they are not working or being used.
Now the machine is lying idle.
现在这台机器正处于闲置状态。
If you say that someone is idle, you disapprove of them because they are not doing anything and you think they should be.
idle bureaucrats who spent the day reading newspapers.
整天看报纸,无所事事的官僚们。
Idle is used to describe something that you do for no particular reason, often because you have nothing better to do.
Brian kept up the idle chatter for another five minutes.
布赖恩又无聊地闲扯了5分钟。
You refer to an idle threat or boast when you do not think the person making it will or can do what they say.
It was more of an idle threat than anything.
那不过是虚张声势的威胁。
idles , idling , idled
If an engine or vehicle is idling, the engine is running slowly and quietly because it is not in gear, and the vehicle is not moving.
Beyond a stand of trees a small plane idled.
在树丛的那一边,一架小飞机的发动机空转着。