Idleness, 1) absence of employment, state of being unoccupied: Gent. I, 1, 8. As I, 1, 37. Shr. I, 1, 157. John IV, 3, 70. Ant. I, 2, 134. I, 4, 76.
2) want of cultivation: “conceives by i.” H5 V, 2, 51. “sterile with i., or manured with industry,” Oth. I, 3, 328.
3) frivolousness, want of gravity, vanity: “for want of other i., I'll bide your proof,” Tw. I, 5, 70. “uphold the unyoked humour of your i.” H4A I, 2, 220. “apes of i.” H4B IV, 5, 123. “but that your royalty holds i. your subject, I should take you for i. itself,” Ant. I, 2, 92. Ant. I, 2, 92
Love in i. == the flower viola tricolor: Mids. II, 1, 168; cf. Shr. I, 1, 156.
Shakespeare Lexicon. Alexander Schmidt. Berlin. Georg Reimer. 1902.
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