indolence

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: in=do=lence

CIDE DICTIONARY

indolence, n. [L. indolentia freedom from pain: cf. F. indolence.].

•  Freedom from that which pains, or harasses, as toil, care, grief, etc.  [1913 Webster]

  "I have ease, if it may not rather be called indolence."  [1913 Webster]
•  The quality or condition of being indolent; inaction, or lack of exertion of body or mind, proceeding from love of ease or aversion to toil; habitual idleness; indisposition to labor; laziness; sloth; inactivity.  [1913 Webster]

  "Life spent in indolence, and therefore sad."  [1913 Webster]

  "As there is a great truth wrapped up in “diligence,” what a lie, on the other hand, lurks at the root of our present use of the word “indolence”! This is from “in” and “doleo,” not to grieve; and indolence is thus a state in which we have no grief or pain; so that the word, as we now employ it, seems to affirm that indulgence in sloth and ease is that which would constitute for us the absence of all pain."  [1913 Webster]

THESAURUS

indolence

a wise passiveness, abeyance, apathy, catalepsy, catatonia, cautiousness, circumspection, contemplation, contemplative life, creeping, deadliness, deathliness, deliberateness, deliberation, dilatoriness, do-nothing policy, do-nothingism, do-nothingness, dolce far niente, dormancy, drawl, entropy, ergophobia, faineancy, faineantise, foot-dragging, hoboism, idleness, immobility, inaction, inactivity, indifference, inertia, inertness, inexertion, just being, laggardness, laissez-aller, laissez-faire, laissez-faireism, languidness, languor, lassitude, latency, laze, laziness, leisureliness, lentitude, lentor, lethargy, listlessness, lotus-eating, meditation, mere existence, mere tropism, neutralism, neutrality, neutralness, noninvolvement, nonparticipation, nonresistance, nonviolence, nonviolent resistance, oscitancy, pacifism, paralysis, passive resistance, passive self-annihilation, passiveness, passivism, passivity, pokiness, policy, procrastination, quiescence, quietism, reluctance, remissness, shiftlessness, slackness, sloth, slothfulness, slouch, slowness, sluggardy, sluggishness, spring fever, stagnancy, stagnation, standpattism, stasis, suspense, tentativeness, torpidity, torpor, vagrancy, vegetation, vis inertiae, vita contemplativa, waiting game, watching and waiting

ROGET THESAURUS

indolence

Inactivity

N inactivity, inaction, inertness, obstinacy, lull, quiescence, rust, rustiness, idleness, remissness, sloth, indolence, indiligence, dawdling, ergophobia, otiosity, dullness, languor, segnity, segnitude, lentor, sluggishness, procrastination, torpor, torpidity, torpescence, stupor, somnolence, drowsiness, nodding, oscitation, oscitancy, pandiculation, hypnotism, lethargy, statuvolence heaviness, heavy eyelids, sleep, slumber, sound sleep, heavy sleep, balmy sleep, Morpheus, Somnus, coma, trance, ecstasis, dream, hibernation, nap, doze, snooze, siesta, wink of sleep, forty winks, snore, hypnology, dull work, pottering, relaxation, Castle of Indolence, lullaby, sedative, tranquilizer, hypnotic, sleeping pill, relaxant, anaesthetic, general anaesthetic, torpedo, idler, drone, droil, dawdle, mopus, do- little faineant, dummy, sleeping partner, afternoon farmer, truant, bummer, loafer, goldbrick, goldbicker, lounger, lazzarone, lubber, lubbard, slow coach (slow, ), opium eater, lotus eater, slug, lag, sluggard, slugabed, slumberer, dormouse, marmot, waiter on Providence, fruges consumere natus, inactive, motionless, unoccupied, unbusied, indolent, lazy, slothful, idle, lusk, remiss, slack, inert, torpid, sluggish, otiose, languid, supine, heavy, dull, leaden, lumpish, exanimate, soulless, listless, drony, dronish, lazy as Ludlam's dog, dilatory, laggard, lagging, slow, rusty, flagging, lackadaisical, maudlin, fiddle-faddle, pottering, shilly-shally, sleeping asleep, fast asleep, dead asleep, sound asleep, in a sound sleep, sound as a top, dormant, comatose, in the arms of Morpheus, in the lap of Morpheus, sleepy, sleepful, dozy, drowsy, somnolent, torpescent, lethargic, lethargical, somnifacient, statuvolent, statuvolic, heavy, heavy with sleep, napping, somnific, somniferous, soporous, soporific, soporiferous, hypnotic, balmy, dreamy, unawakened, unawakened, sedative, inactively, at leisure, the eyes begin to draw straws, bankrupt of life yet prodigal of ease, better 50 years of Europe than a cycle of Cathay, idly busy rolls their world away, the mystery of folded sleep, the timely dew of sleep, thou driftest gently down the tides of sleep, tired Nature's sweet restorer, balmy sleep.