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fainéant — meaning in English

French → English · translate English → French instead

English meaning

  • idle adj Not working, active, or in use.
  • idler noun One who idles; one who spends their time in inaction.
  • lazy adj Unwilling to work or make an effort; disinclined to exertion.
  • lazybones noun An informal, often affectionate, term for a lazy person.
  • loafer noun A person who avoids work and idles their time away.
  • player noun Someone taking part in a game or sport.

Senses

fainéant is used for these senses in English:

  • bone-idle (chiefly, Britain, Ireland, Commonwealth, idiomatic) Utterly lazy.
  • idle Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful.
  • idler One who idles; a lazy person; a sluggard.
  • layabout A lazy person.
  • lazy Unwilling to do work or make an effort; disinclined to exertion.
  • lazybones (slang) A person who is lazy.
  • loafer An idle person.
  • player One who is playful; one without serious aims; an idler; a trifler.

idle — full definition

  1. adj Not working, active, or in use.
  2. adj Lazy or unwilling to work.
  3. verb Of an engine, to run slowly while not driving anything, such as a car sitting still with the motor on.
  4. verb To pass time doing nothing productive.

idler — full definition

  1. noun One who idles; one who spends their time in inaction.
  2. noun One who idles; a lazy person; a sluggard.
  3. noun Any member of a ship's crew who is not required to keep the night-watch.
  4. noun A mechanical device such as a pulley or wheel that does not transmit power through its own axle, but forms part of a gear train, supports a moving belt, etc.

Related French words