【英国问答】lazy和idle(2/3)

英语自学网

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        A question from Anne McConnell in England:
Why aren't lazy and idle exact synonyms?
       

        Hints:
        none
        英式拼法，全部不加双引号
However, idle can be used in other contexts, still to mean something or someone doesn't work, but without the negative judgement. So for example, if you press print on your computer, you may see a sign which says, printer idle. This means that the printer, at the moment, isn't doing anything. Similarly, sometimes factories must close, because there isn't enough work, and so at that point, the factory is idle. And also, the work force, the people are idle.
So when we use idle in this way we are not giving a negative comment on the people or the thing, we are just saying they're not working.
It's very very important to think about the adjectives you choose in particular because very many of them can carry different connotations. For example, cheap and inexpensive. Both mean that something doesn't cost a lot of money.