Dictionary Definition
otiose adj
1 serving no useful purpose; having no excuse for
being; "otiose lines in a play"; "advice is wasted words" [syn:
pointless, superfluous, wasted]
2 producing no result or effect; "a futile
effort"; "the therapy was ineffectual"; "an otiose undertaking";
"an unavailing attempt" [syn: futile, ineffectual, unavailing]
3 disinclined to work or exertion; "faineant
kings under whose rule the country languished"; "an indolent
hanger-on"; "too lazy to wash the dishes"; "shiftless idle youth";
"slothful employees"; "the unemployed are not necessarily work-shy"
[syn: faineant,
indolent, lazy, slothful, work-shy]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
From otiosus#Latin ‘idle’ < otium#Latin ‘ease’.Adjective
- Resulting in no effect.
- Reluctant to work or to exert oneself.
- Having no reason for
being (raison
d’être); having no point, reason, or purpose.
- 1895, Robert
Louis Stevenson, Vailima
Letters, ch 3
- ''On Friday morning, I had to be at my house affairs before seven; and they kept me in Apia till past ten, disputing, and consulting about brick and stone and native and hydraulic lime, and cement and sand, and all sorts of otiose details about the chimney – just what I fled from in my father’s office twenty years ago;''
- 1895, Robert
Louis Stevenson, Vailima
Letters, ch 3
rfex first two
senses
Synonyms
- italbrac resulting in no effect: futile, pointless
- italbrac reluctant to work: indolent, lazy, sluggish
- italbrac having no reason or purpose: superfluous
Antonyms
- italbrac resulting in no effect: productive, useful
- italbrac reluctant to work: hardworking
- italbrac having no reason or purpose: essential, necessary
Derived terms
Translations
resulting in no effect
- Dutch: zinloos
- Polish: niepotrzebny
- Russian: бесполезный (bjespoljéznyj), напрасный (naprásnyj), ненужный (njenúžnyj), бесплодный (bjesplódnyj), тщетный (tščétnyj)
reluctant to work
- Dutch: lui
- Polish: leniwy
- Russian: ленивый, праздный
having no reason or purpose
- Dutch: zinloos, overbodig, doelloos
- Polish: niepotrzebny , zbyteczny
- Russian: бесцельный (bjescél'nyj)
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
abortive, airy, asinine, at leisure, at liberty,
at loose ends, available, barren, bootless, catchpenny, disengaged, empty, fallow, fatuous, flimsy, foolish, free, fribble, fribbling, frivolous, frothy, fruitless, functionless, futile, gainless, idle, in disrepair, inane, inapplicable, inoperable, inoperative, jobless, leisure, leisured, light, lumpen, nonfunctional, nonremunerative,
nonutilitarian,
nugacious, nugatory, off, off duty, off work, out of
employ, out of harness, out of order, out of whack, out of work,
profitless, rewardless, shallow, silly, slender, slight, sterile, superficial, trifling, trite, trivial, unconducive, unemployable, unemployed, unfit, unhelpful, unoccupied, unproductive, unprofitable, unremunerative, unrewarding, unsuitable, unusable, unworkable, vacuous, vain, vapid, windy