fritter vs idle

fritter

verb
  • To squander or waste time, money, or other resources; e.g. occupy oneself idly or without clear purpose, to tinker with an unimportant part of a project, to dally, sometimes as a form of procrastination. 

  • To break into small pieces or fragments. 

  • To cut (meat etc.) into small pieces for frying. 

  • To sinter. 

noun
  • A dish made by deep-frying food coated in batter. 

  • A fragment; a shred; a small piece. 

idle

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

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

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

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. 

noun
  • An idle game. 

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

  • The state of idling, of being idle. 

  • An idle animation. 

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