Frank J. Wilstach, comp. A Dictionary of Similes. 1916.
Idle
Idle as digging in the bottom of the river for the stars we see reflected on the surface.
—Anonymous
Idle as railing at a deaf man.
—Anonymous
Idle as to aim at inscrutable things beyond the moon.
—Anonymous
Idle as a lazzarone.
—Joseph Ashby-Sterry
As idle as a dial when the sun
Sulks in the clouds.
—Alfred Austin
Idle as the stroke of a cane on the hide of rhinoceros.
—Edward Bulwer-Lytton
Idle as air.
—Alice Cary
As idle as a painted ship upon a painted ocean.
—Samuel Taylor Coleridge
Idle, as the dreams of maids.
—Walter Harte
Idle as a summer noon.
—Omar Khayyám
Looks idle, perhaps, and foolish, like a hat on its block in the store.
—Joyce Kilmer
Idle, and mean as a collier’s whelp.
—Rudyard Kipling