Meanings
- obsoleteuncountableidleness
All which my daies I haue not lewdly spent, Nor spilt the blossome of my tender yeares In ydlesse.
1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 3782 more examples
A maiden was seated apart from her companion, the very flowers scattered neglected by her side; but it was obvious that idlesse—that first sweet symptom of love—was pleasanter than her graceful task; for the colour was rich upon her cheek, and the smile parted her scarce conscious lips.
1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter XVII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, page 143Next a lover, with a dream ’Neath his waking eyelids hidden; And a frequent sigh unbidden' And an idlesse all the day Beside a wandering stream;
1838, Elizabeth Barrett Browning, “Earth and her Praisers”, in The Seraphim, and Other Poems, London: Saunders & Otley, page 242
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Cite this entry
idlesse. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/idlesse
“idlesse.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/idlesse. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “idlesse,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/idlesse.
Source: idlesse on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.