Unemployed

The answer

IDLE

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

Used 61 times across 33 distinct years; most recently in 2019; first recorded in 1935. It appears in 9 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.

• OTIOSE (5 uses in xd)
• JOBLESS (4 uses in xd)
• OUTOFWORK (2 uses in xd)
• ATLEISURE (1 uses in xd)
• BETWEENJOBS (1 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
• Twiddling one's thumbs - used 63 times, most recently in 2025
• 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.

• Notion - IDEA, used 778 times
• Dies ___ - IRAE, used 714 times
• Privy to - INON, used 501 times
• ___ facto - IPSO, used 459 times
• Concept - IDEA, used 422 times
• "___ la Douce" - IRMA, used 407 times

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