idle away

idle away

To waste an interval of time in laziness or inactivity. A noun or pronoun can be used between "idle" and "away." Don't idle the whole day away, or else you'll be up all night finishing your science project. I idled away a few hours and then got back to my research.
See also: away, idle
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

idle something away

Fig. to waste one's time in idleness; to waste a period of time, such as an afternoon, evening, one's life. She idled the afternoon away and then went to a party. Don't idle away the afternoon.
See also: away, idle
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

idle away

v.
To spend some period of time not working or avoiding work: I idled the day away. The children idled away the summer.
See also: away, idle
The American Heritage® Dictionary of Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • bury away
  • bring away
  • blaze away
  • blaze away at (someone or something)
  • chew away
  • bear away
  • boring
  • borne
  • cut away
  • chuck away
References in periodicals archive
They are the ones you see tilling farms and tending to livestock, even as they take care of children.HEADED BY WIDOWSMany rural homes are headed by widows, or young mothers who have to feed their children and unemployed husbands, some of whom have opted to take to the bottle and idle away at shopping centres.
Things need to be hurried up a little on a Sunday for those people who don't have hours to idle away.
And afterwards while his father enjoyed a leisurely pint in Woolton Village Club, Colin and his siblings would idle away an hour in the games room.
While his Arsenal team-mates idle away their spare time listening to their iPods, the young Gunners star is doing a correspondence course for the Spanish equivalent of A-levels.
Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) fights to save a patient on her own and Carter and Abby discuss their future together as they idle away several days in quarantine.
There is a living room in which to idle away the day reading newspapers in Italian and English, a billiard room, card tables, tennis court, pillared pool with Jacuzzi, sauna, solarium - and the hotel even boasts a helipad!
How are we going to idle away boring motorway journeys now
While the players idle away the hours playing hide and seek with Sol Campbell, the wives and girlfriends will be exchanging tanning tips at a hotel pool 20 miles away.
Stay on the lane to go over the canal - a pleasant spot this to idle away moments watching the holiday craft by.
Their latest stop is sunny Gibraltar, where, apart from school, they idle away their time on the shoreline,diving, snorkelling and spearing octopus.
From inside the Green Zone they broadcast middle-of-the-road music from Freedom Radio, and the troops idle away the hours at Camp Victory near the airport.
The two companions buy pate, bread and wine and idle away a day on a remote beach or spend the night in a cliff-top hermitage perched like a bird's nest high above the sea where a lay-brother known locally as "Padre" exists comfortably on local produce surrounded by a small, smelly, retinue of boys, goats, chickens and an old bedraggled woman.