How to Use idly in a Sentence

idly

adverb

• Others claimed crews stood idly by as flames climbed the trees and raged through their canopies.
  — Alex Wigglesworth, Los Angeles Times, 12 July 2023
• In this strategy, the pits' true purpose is to sit idly as a threat.
  — Sarah Scoles, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2023
• Just idly swanning around, ambling in and out of the nunnery walls without a care in the world.
  — Meghan Cox Gurdon, WSJ, 18 Dec. 2020
• The notion of idly chatting with a sperm whale elicits sci-fi awe.
  — Sam Firman, Longreads, 11 July 2024
• Facebook took it on the chin and was forced to stand idly by while the software update heard around the world landed.
  — Brandon Amoroso, Forbes, 17 May 2022
• But the conditions of Twitter are such that the comment would not pass idly.
  — Miles Klee, Rolling Stone, 24 Oct. 2022
• Farther down the block, a shirtless man answered the door, bleary-eyed and idly rubbing his chest.
  — Rachel Monroe, The New Yorker, 4 Oct. 2024
• Even though plus-size women have waited long enough, the only thing left to do is stand by idly.
  — Ana Escalante, Glamour, 21 Oct. 2022
• To see Sanders was to see a man still learning, still searching, still resting idly as the orbit swirled around him.
  — Marcus J. Moore, Vulture, 26 Sep. 2022
• In the winter, those concrete stones sit idly by in the groundcover beds waiting for their next time of use.
  — Neil Sperry, Fort Worth Star-Telegram, 22 Mar. 2024
• Joshua Franco has had to sit idly by and watch as his younger brother became a breakout star in 2022.
  — John Whisler, San Antonio Express-News, 29 Dec. 2022
• Coach Waldrop could have stood idly by while this person was struggling, and no one would have called him out on it.
  — Ben Thomas | [e-mail], al, 19 Jan. 2022
• At the same time, speakers of small and endangered languages are not sitting idly by.
  — Ross Perlin, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024
• But a powerless display sitting idly in a room does not rise to such a level.
  — Matthew Malec, National Review, 27 Dec. 2023
• But when discourse fails and mob mentality takes hold, the audience is forced to stand idly by as Thomas is thrown to the wolves.
  — Patrick Ryan, USA TODAY, 19 Mar. 2024
• In tiny Hana, a town on eastern Maui, a cinder cone shields a red-sand beach where nudists and endangered monk seals bake idly in the sun.
  — Sarah Rose, Travel + Leisure, 15 Mar. 2023
• Three Ferrari 250 GTOs, each valued somewhere in the mid to high eight-figure realm, sit idly in the pits waiting for drivers.
  — Rennie Scaysbrook, Robb Report, 27 Sep. 2022
• What can be done Colleges and universities don’t have to sit idly by as gambling grows.
  — Jason W. Osborne, The Conversation, 10 Mar. 2023
• Olivia Culpo isn't going to sit idly by while people criticize her.
  — Catherine Santino, Peoplemag, 5 July 2024
• This nose section was found by the seller while idly trawling through local Craigslist listings.
  — Brendan McAleer, Car and Driver, 21 Aug. 2022
• Rodgers couldn’t really expect the Packers to sit idly by, waiting for the late 30-something's skills to decline.
  — Nancy Armour, USA TODAY, 25 Apr. 2023
• People will tune in, idly, reluctantly, with half an eye on something else.
  — Rory Smith, New York Times, 24 Nov. 2023
• Still, Venezuelans in Miami haven’t been sitting idly by.
  — Christine Armario, Washington Post, 27 July 2024
• Employees inside the stores, which include Hit or Miss and Blockbuster Video, idly talk on the phone or pour over the occasional customer who does come in.
  — Miami Herald Archives, Miami Herald, 16 Apr. 2024
• The funding has also given the U.S. defense-industrial base a jolt in a way that standing idly by never would have.
  — The Editors, National Review, 6 Dec. 2023
• Continued strides, providing one more area of significant growth, in the paint, on the perimeter, anything that forces the defense to do more than stand idly by.
  — Ira Winderman, sun-sentinel.com, 31 May 2021
• The Legislature passed the measure idly as a meaningless gift to its drafter, John W. Butler, a lay preacher who hadn’t passed any other bill.
  — Michael Hiltzik, Los Angeles Times, 26 July 2024
• With Taiwan’s sense of self and China’s expectations in conflict, Mr. Xi is not expected to sit idly by.
  — Damien Cave, New York Times, 13 Jan. 2024
• Born in Luxembourg and based in Berlin, the 39-year-old Krieps does not seem like someone to be kept idly aside, approaching her life and career with a bohemian spirit all her own.
  — Mark Olsenstaff Writer, Los Angeles Times, 29 Dec. 2022
• While the fruits of any such move remain years away, the ambition serves notice that the western bloc won’t stand idly by as China’s nationalist approach takes root.
  — Jacob Carpenter, Fortune, 28 Feb. 2022

Last Updated: 24 Dec 2024