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
  • The boat bobbed idly, water lapping against it.
    — Kelso Harper, Scientific American, 16 Dec. 2025
  • Don’t sit idly as the first wave approaches; make the most of your time.
    — Brandon Batchelor, Forbes.com, 23 June 2025
  • The notion of idly chatting with a sperm whale elicits sci-fi awe.
    — Sam Firman, Longreads, 11 July 2024
  • In this strategy, the pits' true purpose is to sit idly as a threat.
    — Sarah Scoles, Scientific American, 14 Nov. 2023
  • But Laika hasn’t been sitting idly in the six years that have passed.
    — Brian Welk, IndieWire, 25 June 2025
  • Our faith traditions teach us not to stand idly by the blood of our neighbors.
    — Joel Mosbacher, New York Daily News, 24 Apr. 2025
  • This Good Shepherd will not stand idly by and let that happen.
    — Scott Santarosa, San Diego Union-Tribune, 13 May 2025
  • 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
  • And San Jose wasn’t going to sit idly by on the sidelines this time.
    — Sal Pizarro, Mercury News, 8 Feb. 2026
  • In the clip, Lamar paces around a greyscale football field, idly chatting on the phone with a friend.
    — Ryan Coleman, EW.com, 26 Jan. 2025
  • 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
  • But the world's most valuable company isn't sitting idly by.
    — Zev Fima, CNBC, 2 Mar. 2026
  • 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
  • But a powerless display sitting idly in a room does not rise to such a level.
    — Matthew Malec, National Review, 27 Dec. 2023
  • Salesforce also isn’t standing idly by.
    — Zev Fima, CNBC, 11 Aug. 2025
  • Aries are not one to stand idly by when someone is being bullied or targeted.
    — Olivia Munson, USA TODAY, 21 Mar. 2025
  • 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
  • At the same time, speakers of small and endangered languages are not sitting idly by.
    — Ross Perlin, Foreign Affairs, 23 Apr. 2024
  • Planes that have been inspected and fuelled are now sitting idly on runways.
    — The New Yorker, New Yorker, 7 Nov. 2025
  • The countries that guaranteed the agreement are supposed to play their role and not stand idly by.
    — Dan Perry, Newsweek, 13 Feb. 2025
  • Olivia Culpo isn't going to sit idly by while people criticize her.
    — Catherine Santino, Peoplemag, 5 July 2024
  • This poor girl and thousands of others suffer for no good reason and the world sits idly by and does nothing.
    — Megan Feringa, The Athletic, 2 Jan. 2025
  • 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
  • Coach Waldrop could have stood idly by while this person was struggling, and no one would have called him out on it.
    — Ben Thomas | [email protected], al, 19 Jan. 2022
  • And upon seeing his high school friends getting caught up in it, Jamie can no longer sit idly behind a desk.
    — Brian Davids, The Hollywood Reporter, 4 Dec. 2024
  • 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
  • No matter how strong the brand’s fanbase is, no company can sit idly by while its industry changes.
    — Phil Wahba, Fortune, 29 May 2026
  • This nose section was found by the seller while idly trawling through local Craigslist listings.
    — Brendan McAleer, Car and Driver, 21 Aug. 2022

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'idly.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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