- Indolence
- Indolence In"do*lence, n. [L. indolentia freedom from pain:
cf. F. indolence.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Freedom from that which pains, or harasses, as toil, care,
grief, etc. [Obs.]
[1913 Webster]
I have ease, if it may not rather be called indolence. --Bp. Hough. [1913 Webster]
2. The quality or condition of being indolent; inaction, or lack of exertion of body or mind, proceeding from love of ease or aversion to toil; habitual idleness; indisposition to labor; laziness; sloth; inactivity. [1913 Webster]
Life spent in indolence, and therefore sad. --Cowper. [1913 Webster]
As there is a great truth wrapped up in ``diligence,'' what a lie, on the other hand, lurks at the root of our present use of the word ``indolence''! This is from ``in'' and ``doleo,'' not to grieve; and indolence is thus a state in which we have no grief or pain; so that the word, as we now employ it, seems to affirm that indulgence in sloth and ease is that which would constitute for us the absence of all pain. --Trench. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.
