Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)
Hide Quotations Hide Etymology
About this entry:
First published 1960 (SND Vol. V). Includes material from the 1976 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1846
[0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,1,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0,0]
IDLE, adj. Sc. usages in phrs.: (1) idle-employed (Wgt. 1958), (2) idle o' wark (Mry. 1958), at a loss for work, with little to do; (3) to fyte the idle pin, to lounge about wasting time. See Fite, v.(2) Sc. 1846 J. W. Carlyle New Letters (1903) I. 216:
Robertson had called ten days ago, and left a request that I “would send him word to the club when I returned”! I should have been “gey idle o' wark” I think!
You may wish to vary the format shown below depending on the citation style used.
"Idle adj.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 15 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/idle>
