Quranic root
عطل
ʿ · ṭ · l
The root centers on emptiness, vacancy, and deprivation: being without adornment, occupation, equipment, attendance, or use.
The core idea extends from being empty or devoid to leaving things unguarded, unoccupied, unused, or neglected. A separate lexical branch describes height and beauty in عَيْطَلٌ.
- Maqāyīs · row 3242
- Mufradāt · row 991
- Lane · entry 3778
- 2
- Quran-attested forms
- 2
- Quran senses
- 2
- Quran occurrences
Forms in the Quran
The forms this root actually takes in the Quran. Select one to jump to its senses and examples.
عَطَّلَ
ʿaṭṭala
- Part of speech
- Verb · Form II
- Form
- II
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
To leave untended or without a herder; to abandon the normal care of something.
Quranically attested in the passive form for the pregnant she-camels left without their customary attendant amid the terrors of the Last Hour.
- Lane · entry 3765
- Mufradāt · row 991
Selected Quran examples
Quran 81:4word 3
“(are) left untended”
مُعَطَّلٌ
muʿaṭṭalun
- Part of speech
- Passive participle
- Quran occurrences
- 1 occurrence
Selected examples are shown with the sense they illustrate — chosen to teach that sense, not the complete list of this form’s Quran occurrences.
Left untended, neglected, or unused; of a well, one from which water is no longer drawn or whose use has lapsed.
Quranically used as a feminine passive participle for a well abandoned through neglect, including neglect resulting from the loss of its owners.
- Lane · entry 3780
- Mufradāt · row 991
Selected Quran examples
Quran 22:45word 12
“abandoned”
Occurrences in the Quran
Every place this root appears, in Quran order. The first few are shown here.
View all 2 occurrencesBroader Classical Arabic meanings
Recorded for this root in the Classical lexicons beyond its Quran usage. These are secondary to the Quran senses above.
Show 21 Classical meanings
عَطِلَ
To be devoid or destitute of something, especially women's adornment; also to be without occupation or, of camels, without a herder.
The absence may concern ornaments, property, discipline or good qualities, work, or attendance.
- Lane · entry 3764
عَطِلَ
To be or become large in body.
- Lane · entry 3764
عَطَّلَ
To strip something of its adornment or attached equipment, such as ornaments from a woman or the string from a bow.
- Lane · entry 3765
عَطَّلَ
To render or leave a place, frontier, people, land, or animals vacant, unprotected, unguided, uncultivated, or neglected.
The construction can describe a frontier without defenders, subjects without governance, land left uncultivated, or animals left without an attendant.
- Lane · entry 3765
عَطَّلَ
To make someone or something free from work or service; to leave a hired worker idle or horses out of military use.
- Lane · entry 3765
عَطَّلَ
To refrain from imposing a prescribed legal punishment.
Used in the conventional expression تَعْطِيلُ الحُدُودِ.
- Lane · entry 3765
تَعَطَّلَ
To remain or become without work, inactive, unused, or vacant.
Applied to a person without occupation, a bucket no longer used for drawing water, or a tent that has become vacant.
- Lane · entry 3767
اِعْطَأَلَّتِ
Of a tree, to become many-branched, tangled, luxuriant, or dense.
- Lane · entry 3769
عَطَلٌ
The denuded or unclad parts of the body; also the body or person, especially the neck, with reference to bodily form and beauty.
The usage may refer specifically to the neck or more generally to a person's stature and physical perfection.
- Lane · entry 3771
عَطَلٌ
The stalk of a palm raceme, especially the male palm stalk used in pollination.
- Lane · entry 3771
عَطِلَةٌ
Goodly, beautiful, or well formed in body.
Applied especially to a woman or a she-camel; for a she-camel it may include perfection of body and tallness.
- Lane · entry 3772
عَطِلَةٌ
Abounding in milk.
Applied to a she-camel, ewe, or she-goat; the quality may be recognized from the appearance of the neck.
- Lane · entry 3772
عَطِلٌ
Of a leather bucket, rendered unusable by broken thongs or handles, or left unused for a time.
- Lane · entry 3772
عُطُلٌ
Without customary adornment, attachments, or equipment.
Applied to a woman without ornaments, animals without halters, collars, or brands, men without weapons, and a bow without a string.
- Lane · entry 3773
عُطُلٌ
Destitute of property or of discipline and other good qualities of mind.
Applied to a man.
- Lane · entry 3773
عُطْلَةٌ
The state of being or remaining without work or occupation.
It may also describe having no estate on which to labor.
- Lane · entry 3774
عَاطِلٌ
Without diacritical points or vowel marks.
In the expression عبارات or verses described as عَوَاطِلُ, the writing lacks the distinguishing marks found in pointed text.
- Lane · entry 3777
عَيْطَلٌ
Tall or long, especially long in the neck, with an implication of beauty or fine bodily form.
Applied to a woman, she-camel, horse, or other animal, and also to a hill or mountain.
- Lane · entry 3778
عَيْطَلٌ
Soft or tender, of trees.
- Lane · entry 3778
مُعَطِّلٌ
One who asserts that the universe is without a creator or artificer, or who denies one or more aspects of creation, resurrection, revelation, or divine agency.
The term covers historically distinct doctrinal positions, including denial of the Creator, resurrection, apostles, or divine agency.
- Lane · entry 3765
- Lane · entry 3781
مَعَاطِلُ
The parts of the body that serve as places for a woman's ornaments.
A plural form whose singular is not specified in the cited entry.
- Lane · entry 3783
Cautions
Points that affect how this root should be read.
The two Quranic forms are related but distinct: the verb is a passive Form II occurrence, while مُعَطَّلٌ is a passive participle describing a neglected well.
The historical Quran citation attached to the well discussion in Lane is not used as a modern verse location; the modern location here follows QAC.