Bum
Bum verb - To spend time doing nothing.
Usage example: spent most of the summer just bumming around the house
Idle is a synonym for bum in activity topic. In some cases you can use "Idle" instead a verb "Bum", when it comes to topics like loaf, be unoccupied, waste, industrious.
Idle
Idle verb - To spend time doing nothing.
Usage example: she likes to idle during the summer, maintaining that there's a lot to be said for sloth
Bum is a synonym for idle in activity topic. Sometimes you can use "Bum" instead a verb "Idle", if it concerns topics such as be unoccupied, waste, industrious.
Mutual synonyms
Both words in one sentence
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In The Idle Class, Charlie Chaplin finds his golf ball in the mouth of a bum sleeping on the golf course.
Source: Bizarre and Improbable Golf Game -
Eric Idle at one point gives a voice-over regarding a prohibition on "getting cheap laughs with words like knickers, bum, or wee-wees".
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The Chemist Sketch was interrupted by an Eric Idle voiceover stating that "it is against the policy of the BBC to get cheap laughs with words like knickers, bum, or wee-wees."
Source: Inherently Funny Words
Cite this Source
Idle and Bum. (2016). Retrieved 2026, August 16, from https://thesaurus.plus/related/bum/idle
Bum & Idle. N.p., 2016. Web. 16 Aug. 2026. <https://thesaurus.plus/related/bum/idle>.
Idle or Bum. 2016. Accessed August 16, 2026. https://thesaurus.plus/related/bum/idle.
Google Ngram Viewer shows how "bum" and "idle" have occurred on timeline