hibernate

(as) busy as a hibernating bear

Not busy at all; inactive. He says he has no time to help our charity, but I know that he's off from school right now and busy as a hibernating bear!
See also: bear, busy, hibernate
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

*busy as a hibernating bear

not busy at all. (*Also: as ~.) Tom: I can't go with you. I'm busy. Jane: Yeah. You're as busy as a hibernating bear. He lounged on the sofa all day, busy as a hibernating bear.
See also: bear, busy, hibernate
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.
See also:
  • (as) busy as a hibernating bear
  • busy as a hibernating bear
  • busy
  • not know whether (one) is coming or going
  • not know whether one is coming or going
  • not know whether one is coming or going and not know if one is ...
  • not know whether you are coming or going
  • Grand Central Station
  • keeping
  • busy bee
References in periodicals archive
Caption: Frogs are winter "survivors"--some hibernate underwater, others hibernate on land, and some, like the wood frog pictured here, produce "antifreeze" that prevents ice crystals from forming internally in frigid temperatures.
may move short or long distances from a tree-based refuge to hibernate underground.
We used Ibutton Thermocron data loggers (Dallas Semiconductor Corp., Dallas, Texas) to monitor temperatures in crevices or hollows and under the bark of potential bat roost trees to determine if it was feasible for bats to hibernate in trees on Haida Gwaii.
Fat-tailed dwarf lemurs hibernate in a state known as torpor, where the regulation of body temperature stops and the metabolism slows down.
Key words: database, heterogeneous, hibernate, replication, segmentation
Faced with a shortage of food in the winter, bears hibernate as a way to conserve energy.
HAMSTERS don't hibernate but they often huddle up and look cold if they are not feeling well.
A previously undocumented lethal condition has been found among bats that hibernate in caves and mines in Western Massachusetts, New York and Vermont, according to state wildlife officials.
But not bears, who exercise while they hibernate. "What I've seen when I've been in bear dens with hibernating bears," says Kasworm, "is that bears do a fair amount of shivering and muscle contraction....
As winter approaches, grizzlies settle down in protected dens where they will hibernate for 4 to 6 months.
It infuriates me that we are not allowed to hibernate during the cold winter months like other animals.
"I No Longer Desire Turtles": I turn my turtle loose/at the end of summer;/like an escaped convict/it dips under brown leaves/to hid and hibernate.//Yearly from the backyard/grass to the asphalt drive/its cracked carapace comes./I play trick-the-turtle/by dropping the sealed case//in water.
Cosminexus enables efficient support for Java application development such as Struts, JavaServer Faces, Spring and Hibernate, among others.
They all hibernate, so late summer is a crucial time for them as they stuff themselves with berries and fish before the winter sets in.
Black bears, which hibernate for several months over the winter without losing bone mass, could provide a clue to the cause of osteoporosis, an enormous public health problem.