Noah Webster
Idleness
I'DLENESS, noun Abstinence from labor or employment; the state of a person who is unemployed in labor, or unoccupied in business; the state of doing nothing. idleness is the parent of vice.
Through the idleness of the hands the house droppeth through. Ecclesiastes 10:18.
1. Aversion to labor; reluctance to be employed, or to exertion either of body or mind; laziness; sloth; sluggishness. This is properly laziness; but idleness is often the effect of laziness, and sometimes this word may be used for it.
2. Unimportance; trivialness.
Apes of idleness
3. Inefficacy; uselessness. [Little Used.]
4. Barrenness; worthlessness. [Little Used.]
5. Emptiness; foolishness; infatuation; as idleness of brain. [Little Used.]