Definition of idle

"idle" in the noun sense

1. idle

the state of an engine or other mechanism that is idling

"the car engine was running at idle"

"idle" in the verb sense

1. idle, tick over

run disconnected or idle

"the engine is idling"

2. idle, laze, slug, stagnate

be idle exist in a changeless situation

"The old man sat and stagnated on his porch"

"He slugged in bed all morning"

"idle" in the adjective sense

1. idle

not in action or at work

"an idle laborer"

"idle drifters"

"the idle rich"

"an idle mind"

2. baseless, groundless, idle, unfounded, unwarranted, wild

without a basis in reason or fact

"baseless gossip"

"the allegations proved groundless"

"idle fears"

"unfounded suspicions"

"unwarranted jealousy"

3. idle, unused

not in active use

"the machinery sat idle during the strike"

"idle hands"

4. idle, light

silly or trivial

"idle pleasure"

"light banter"

"light idle chatter"

5. idle, loose

lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility

"idle talk"

"a loose tongue"

6. dead, idle

not yielding a return

"dead capital"

"idle funds"

7. idle, jobless, out of work

not having a job

"idle carpenters"

"jobless transients"

"many people in the area were out of work"

Source: WordNet® (An amazing lexical database of English)

Princeton University "About WordNet®."
WordNet®. Princeton University. 2010.


View WordNet® License

Quotations for idle

Idle time not idly spent. [ Sir Henry Wotton ]

As idle as a painted ship
Upon a painted ocean. [ Coleridge ]

An idle youth, a needy age. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

The idle mill earns nothing. [ Proverb ]

Luck is the idol of the idle. [ Proverb ]

Satan finds some mischief still
For idle hands to do. [ Watts ]

Idle people take the most pains. [ Proverb ]

Better be idle than ill employed. [ Scotch Proverb ]

An idle head is a box for the wind. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

I live an idle burden to the ground [ Homer ]

What is glory? what is fame?
The echo of a long-lost name;
A breath, an idle hour's brief talk;
The shadow of an arrant naught;
A flower that blossoms for a day.
Dying next morrow;
A stream that hurries on its way.
Singing of sorrow. [ Motherwell ]

A young man idle is an old man needy. [ Proverb ]

Idle men are dead all their life long. [ Proverb ]

Idle brains are the devil's workhouses. [ Proverb ]

A poor idle man cannot be an honest man. [ Achilles Poincelot ]

An idle man in the community is a thief. [ J. J. Rousseau ]

True, I talk of dreams.
Which are the children of an idle brain.
Begot of nothing but vain fantasy. [ William Shakespeare ]

In idle wishes fools supinely stay;
Be there a will, then wisdom finds a way. [ William Shakespeare ]

The tongue of idle persons is never idle. [ Proverb ]

Idle fellows are the devil's playfellows. [ Proverb ]

He is idle that might be better employed. [ Proverb ]

An idle person is the devil's playfellow. [ Proverb ]

As good be an addled egg as an idle bird. [ Proverb ]

Be not idle and you shall not be longing. [ English Proverb, collected by George Herbert ]

An idle man's brain is the devil's workshop. [ Bunyan ]

There is no terror, Cassius, in your threats;
For I am armed so strong in honesty
That they pass by me as the idle wind
Which I respect not. [ Jul. Caes ]

Tears, idle tears, I know not what they mean,
Tears from the depth of some divine despair
Rise in the heart and gather in the eyes,
In looking on the happy autumn fields,
And thinking of the days that are no more. [ Alfred Tennyson ]

These eyes tho' clear
To outward view of blemish or of spot.
Bereft of light, their seeing have forgot.
Nor to their idle orbs doth sight appear
Of sun, or moon, or star, throughout the year.
Or man, or woman. Yet I argue not
Against Heaven's hand or will, nor have a jot
Of heart or hope; but still bear up and steer
Right onward. [ Milton ]

All idle talk (so much the wind carries away). [ French Proverb ]

To be idle is the ultimate purpose of the busy. [ Dr. Johnson ]

Work breaks an idle fellow's legs, arms and back. [ Proverb ]

Fancy brings us as many vain hopes as idle fears. [ Humboldt ]

The ruin of most men dates from some idle moment. [ Hillard ]

To be employed in useless things, is half to be idle. [ Proverb ]

If the devil catch a man idle, he will set him at work. [ Proverb ]

An idle man is like stagnant water: he corrupts himself. [ Latena ]

Idle rumors were also added to well-founded apprehension. [ Lucan ]

You will know an idle fellow if you but see him at dinner. [ Proverb ]

Never idle a moment, but thrifty and thoughtful of others. [ Longfellow ]

The more idle a woman's hand, the more occupied her heart. [ S. Dubay ]

Love is the business of the idle, but the idleness of the busy. [ Bulwer Lytton ]

The real men of genius were resolute workers, not idle dreamers. [ G. H. Lewes ]

An idle reason lessens the weight of the good ones you gave before. [ Swift ]

He that is busy is tempted but by one devil, he that is idle by a legion. [ Proverb ]

As we must account for every idle word, so we must for every idle silence. [ Franklin ]

Slothfulness casteth into a deep sleep; and an idle soul shall suffer hunger. [ Bible ]

Most women indulge in idle gossip, which is the henchman of rumor and scandal. [ Octave Feuillet ]

Great things are not accomplished by idle dreams, but by years of patient study. [ Aughey ]

These are the effects of doting age, - vain doubts and idle cares and overcaution. [ Dryden ]

He is not only idle who does nothing, but he is idle who might be better employed. [ Socrates ]

Generally all warlike people are a little idle, and love danger better than travail. [ Bacon ]

One that is perfectly idle is perfectly weary too, and knows not what he would do or have. [ Proverb ]

Not to be lost in idle admiration is the only sure means of making and of preserving happiness. [ Horace ]

Reputation is an idle and most false imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without deserving. [ William Shakespeare ]

Silence holds the door against the strife of tongue and all the impertinences of idle conversation. [ James Hervey ]

Nothing is more idle than to inquire after happiness, which nature has kindly placed within our reach. [ Johnson ]

Love is the occupation of the idle man, the amusement of a busy one, and the shipwreck of a sovereign. [ Napoleon I ]

There is really nothing left to a genuine idle man, who possesses any considerable degree of vital power, but sin. [ J. G. Holland ]

Philosophy consists not in airy schemes or idle speculations; the rule and conduct of all social life is her great province. [ Thomson ]

Thou fool! Nature alone is antique, and the oldest art a mushroom; that idle crag thou sittest on is six thousand years of age. [ Carlyle ]

Why should I start at the plough of my Lord, that maketh deep furrows on my soul? I know he is no idle husbandman; he purposeth a crop. [ Rutherford ]

They learn to be idle, wandering about from house to house; and not only idle, but tattlers also, and busybodies, speaking things which they ought not. [ Bible ]

Dreams are the children of an idle brain, begot of nothing but vain fantasy; which is as thin of substance as the air, and more inconstant than the wind. [ William Shakespeare ]

A really grand passion is comparatively rare nowadays. It is the privilege of people who have nothing to do. That is the only use of the idle classes in the country. [ Oscar Wilde, A Woman of No Importance ]

Those who are too idle to read, save for the purpose of amusement, may in these works acquire some acquaintance with history, which, however inaccurate, is better than none. [ Sir Walter Scott ]

Think of living! Thy life, wert thou the pitifullest of all the sons of earth, is no idle dream, but a solemn reality. It is thy own; it is all thou hast to front eternity with. [ Carlyle ]

I am one who finds within me a nobility that spurns! the idle pratings of the great, and their mean boasts of what their fathers were, while they themselves are fools effeminate. [ Percival ]

Men commonly injure one another without cause, and simply to do something: as an idle promenader in a garden, breaks the young branches, and strips off the leaves of the most beautiful flowers. [ E. Souvestre ]

The idle man stands outside of God's plan, outside of the ordained scheme of things; and the truest self-respect, the noblest independence, and the most genuine dignity, are not to be found there. [ J. G. Holland ]

The mind has a certain vegetative power, which cannot be wholly idle. If it is not laid out and cultivated into a beautiful garden, it will of itself shoot up in weeds or flowers of a wild growth. [ Steele ]

He who would do some great thing in this short life, must apply himself to the work with such a concentration of his forces as to the idle spectators, who live only to amuse themselves, looks like insanity. [ John Foster ]

To procrastinate seems inherent in man, for if you do today that you may enjoy tomorrow it is but deferring the enjoyment; so that to be idle or industrious, vicious or virtuous, is but with a view of procrastinating the one or the other. [ B. R. Haydon ]

Let your sleep be necessary and healthful, not idle and expensive of time, beyond the needs and conveniences of nature; and sometimes be curious to see the preparation which the sun makes when he is coming forth from his chambers of the east. [ Jeremy Taylor ]

How idle a boast, after all, is the immortality of a name! Time is ever silently turning over his pages; we are too much engrossed by the story of the present to think of the character and anecdotes that gave interest to the past; and each age is a volume thrown aside and forgotten. [ Washington Irving ]

From numberless books the fluttering reader, idle and inconstant, bears away the bloom that only clings to the outer leaf; but genius has its nectaries, delicate glands, and secrecies of sweetness, and upon these the thoughtful mind must settle in its labor, before the choice perfume of fancy and wisdom is drawn forth. [ Willmott ]

There are so many things to lower a man's top-sails - he is such a dependent creature - he is to pay such court to his stomach, his food, his sleep, his exercise - that, in truth, a hero is an idle word. Man seems formed to be a hero in suffering, not a hero in action. Men err in nothing more than in the estimate which they make of human labor. [ Cecil ]

Plutarch tells us of an idle and effeminate Etrurian who found fault with the manner in which Themistocles had conducted a recent campaign. What, said the hero in reply, have you, too, something to say about war, who are like the fish that has a sword, but no heart? He is always the severest censor on the merits of others who has the least worth of his own. [ E. L. Magoon ]

When the desire of wealth is taking hold of the heart, let us look round and see how it operates upon those whose industry or fortune has obtained it. When we find them oppressed with their own abundance, luxurious with out pleasure, idle without ease, impatient and querulous in themselves, and despised or hated by the rest of mankind, we shall soon be convinced that if the real wants of our condition are satisfied, there remains little to be sought with solicitude or desired with eagerness. [ Dr. Johnson ]

He who expects from a great name in politics, in philosophy, in art, equal greatness in other things, is little versed in human nature. Our strength lies in our weakness. The learned in books are ignorant of the world. He who is ignorant of books is often well acquainted with other things; for life is of the same length in the learned and unlearned; the mind cannot be idle; if it is not taken up with one thing, it attends to another through choice or necessity; and the degree of previous capacity in one class or another is a mere lottery. [ Hazlitt ]

idle in Scrabble®

The word idle is playable in Scrabble®, no blanks required.

Scrabble® Letter Score: 5

Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays In The Letters idle:

LIED
(21)
DELI
(21)
DEIL
(21)
 

All Scrabble® Plays For The Word idle

IDLE
(18)
IDLE
(18)
IDLE
(15)
IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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The 180 Highest Scoring Scrabble® Plays For Words Using The Letters In idle

LIED
(21)
DELI
(21)
DEIL
(21)
LIED
(18)
DELI
(18)
IDLE
(18)
DEIL
(18)
IDLE
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DELI
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DEIL
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DELI
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IDLE
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DELI
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LIED
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LIED
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LIED
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DEIL
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IDLE
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IDLE
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DEIL
(15)
LIED
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DELI
(15)
DEIL
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IDLE
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DEIL
(14)
DELI
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LIED
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DIE
(12)
IDE
(12)
DELI
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IDE
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LID
(12)
LID
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IDE
(12)
LED
(12)
DIE
(12)
LED
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LED
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DIE
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LID
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DEIL
(12)
IDLE
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LIED
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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DELI
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DELI
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DEIL
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DEIL
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LIED
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DEIL
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DEIL
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DELI
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LIED
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LIED
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DELI
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LIED
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DEIL
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ID
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ID
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LIED
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LIE
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LIE
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LIE
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DELI
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IDLE
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IDE
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LID
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IDLE
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LED
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LED
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LED
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LIED
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LIED
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LIED
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IDLE
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LIED
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DEIL
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IDLE
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IDE
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DEIL
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DIE
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IDE
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LID
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EL
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IDE
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LID
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DEIL
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LIE
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LIE
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LIED
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ID
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DEIL
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LIED
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LED
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DIE
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IDLE
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LIED
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LIE
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DIE
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LED
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IDLE
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ID
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ID
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DEIL
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DIE
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EL
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IDE
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ID
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LIE
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LED
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DIE
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ID
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LIE
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idle in Words With Friends™

The word idle is playable in Words With Friends™, no blanks required.

Words With Friends™ Letter Score: 6

Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays In The Letters idle:

LIED
(30)
DELI
(30)
DEIL
(30)
LIED
(30)
DEIL
(30)
 

All Words With Friends™ Plays For The Word idle

IDLE
(24)
IDLE
(24)
IDLE
(18)
IDLE
(18)
IDLE
(18)
IDLE
(18)
IDLE
(14)
IDLE
(14)
IDLE
(12)
IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
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IDLE
(6)

The 197 Highest Scoring Words With Friends™ Plays Using The Letters In idle

LIED
(30)
DELI
(30)
DEIL
(30)
LIED
(30)
DEIL
(30)
DELI
(24)
IDLE
(24)
IDLE
(24)
IDLE
(18)
DEIL
(18)
LIED
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LIED
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DELI
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IDLE
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DELI
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DELI
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DEIL
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DEIL
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DELI
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LIED
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IDLE
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LIED
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IDLE
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DEIL
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LIED
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DELI
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DEIL
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DEIL
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LIED
(16)
LID
(15)
LID
(15)
LED
(15)
LED
(15)
LED
(15)
LID
(15)
DELI
(14)
DELI
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IDLE
(14)
IDLE
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LID
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LED
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DELI
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DEIL
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LIE
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DEIL
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DEIL
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IDE
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IDE
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IDE
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LIED
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IDLE
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LIE
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LIED
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DIE
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Word Growth involving idle

Shorter words in idle

id

Longer words containing idle

bridle bridled unbridled

bridle bridleless

bridle bridler bridlers

bridle bridles unbridles

bridle bridleway

bridle unbridle unbridled

bridle unbridle unbridles

idled bridled unbridled

idled sidled

idleness

idler bridler bridlers

idler idlers bridlers

idler idlers sidlers

idler sidler sidlers

idles aidless maidless

idles avoidless

idles bridles unbridles

idles idlest

idles kidless

idles lidless

idles liquidless

idles sidles

midlevel midlevels

sidle sidled

sidle sidler sidlers

sidle sidles