career vs idle

career

verb
  • To move rapidly straight ahead, especially in an uncontrolled way. 

adj
  • Synonym of serial (“doing something repeatedly or regularly as part of one's lifestyle or career”) 

noun
  • General course of action or conduct in life, or in a particular part of it. 

  • One's calling in life; a person's occupation; one's profession. 

  • A jouster's path during a joust. 

  • The flight of a hawk. 

idle

verb
  • Of an engine: to run at a slow speed, or out of gear; to tick over. 

  • To spend in idleness; to waste; to consume. 

  • To lose or spend time doing nothing, or without being employed in business. 

noun
  • An idle game. 

  • The lowest selectable thrust or power setting of an engine. 

  • The state of idling, of being idle. 

  • An idle animation. 

adj
  • Not engaged in any occupation or employment; unemployed; inactive; doing nothing in particular. 

  • Not being used appropriately; not occupied; (of time) with no, no important, or not much activity. 

  • Averse to work, labor or employment; lazy; slothful. 

  • Of no importance; useless; worthless; vain; trifling; thoughtless; silly. 

How often have the words career and idle occurred in a corpus of books? (source: Google Ngram Viewer )