Search the Dictionary

Want of action or activity; forbearance from labor; idleness; rest; inertness. Berkeley.

To rouse from a state resembling sleep, as from death, stupidity., or inaction; to put into action; to give new life to; to stir up; as, to awake the dead; to awake the dormant faculties. I was soon awaked from this disagreeable reverie. Goldsmith. It way awake my bounty further. Shak. No sunny gleam awakes the trees.…

they shall still succeed. Cowper. To dream away, out, through, etc., to pass in revery or inaction; to spend in idle vagaries; as, to dream away an hour; to dream through life. " Why does Antony dream out his hours" Dryden.

To lose or spend time in inaction, or without being employed in business. Shak.

One who idles; one who spends his time in inaction; a lazy person; a sluggard.

The quality or condition of being indolent; inaction, or want of exertion of body or mind, proceeding from love of ease or aversion to toil; habitual idleness; indisposition to labor; laziness; sloth; inactivity. Life spent in indolence, and therefore sad. Cowper. As there is a great truth wrapped up in "diligence," wh…

A state of inaction or indifference. Europe lay then under a deep lethargy. Atterbury.

Anything which induces rest or inaction; that which quiets uneasiness. They chose atheism as an opiate. Bentley.

Temporary inaction or waiting; hesitation; suspence; doubt. I stand in pause where I shall first begin. Shak.

Peace or tranquillity of mind; calmness; indifference; apathy; dispassion; indisturbance; inaction.

Fig.: To degenerate in idleness; to become dull or impaired by inaction. Must I rust in Egypt never more Appear in arms, and be the chief of Greece Dryden.

Impaired by inaction, disuse, or neglect. [Hector,] in this dull and long-continued truce, Is rusty grown. Shak.

c contraction and stiffness of the voluntary muscles occurring after a period of muscular inaction.