Twiddling one's thumbs

The answer

IDLE

4 letters. See every clue for this answer on the IDLE answer page.

Used 63 times across 27 distinct years; most recently in 2025; first recorded in 1967. It appears in 15 publications in the xd corpus. Frequency and last-seen figures come from the xd crossword corpus only.

Other answers for this clue

The same clue has also been answered these ways in the xd corpus. Answers inside this collection link to their own answer page.

• BORED (3 uses in xd)

Other clues for IDLE

Every other clue in this collection answered by IDLE, most used first.

• Doing nothing - used 237 times, most recently in 2026
• Not doing anything - used 165 times, most recently in 2026
• Inactive - used 154 times, most recently in 2026
• Not busy - used 132 times, most recently in 2026
• Between jobs - used 87 times, most recently in 2025
• Just sitting around - used 85 times, most recently in 2026
• Run in neutral - used 70 times, most recently in 2026
• Unemployed - used 61 times, most recently in 2019
• Not active - used 50 times, most recently in 2026
• Not in use - used 50 times, most recently in 2026

Related clues

Clues in this collection of the same answer length that share a word with this clue, or match its answer pattern when no word is shared. Most used first.

• ___ one's time (wait) - BIDE, used 89 times
• Lose one's footing - SLIP, used 74 times
• "This one's ___" - ONME, used 59 times
• Have ___ in one's bonnet - ABEE, used 56 times
• Make one's way - WEND, used 49 times
• ___ one's time - BIDE, used 48 times

Search the clue collection

Search by clue words or by answer, or type a pattern with the letters you have and a blank for each square you do not know. The characters _ ? . and - all work as blanks.