idle hands are the devil's workshop
Proposed by a contributor, not yet supported by evidence.
Meaning · English
People with nothing to do may get into trouble or mischief
Nghĩa · Tiếng Việt
Người có nhiều thời gian rảnh có thể gặp rắc rối
Machine-translated — suggest a fix
Literally: hands not engaged in productive activity
Where it’s used:
Used
Widespread English
Sources & notes
Listed on Wikipedia “List of proverbial phrases” (CC BY-SA 4.0, retrieved 2026-07-29); definition pending editorial review. Definition drafted by AI (@cf/meta/llama-3.3-70b-instruct-fp8-fast) and auto-approved by rule on 2026-07-30; pending editor spot-check.
Common questions
What does “idle hands are the devil's workshop” mean?
People with nothing to do may get into trouble or mischief Literally: hands not engaged in productive activity
Is “idle hands are the devil's workshop” formal or informal?
No register label has been reviewed yet — treat it as neutral and check the usage notes above.