What it means
معطلی (mo’attali) describes the state of being stuck, delayed, or kept waiting, often with a strong sense of frustration. It comes from the Arabic root عطل, meaning idle, suspended, or out of service. The Persian -ی suffix turns it into an abstract noun. In spoken Persian this word is colloquial and emotionally loaded: it is what you feel after sitting in a government waiting room for three hours with no clear end in sight. A related word is تاخیر (ta’khir), which is more neutral and formal.
How to use it
- چقدر معطلی دادن بهم. (cheghadr mo’attali dâdan beham.) “They kept me waiting so long.”
- از این همه معطلی خسته شدم. (az in hame mo’attali khaste shodam.) “I’m exhausted from all this waiting around.”
- کارم بدون معطلی انجام شد. (kâram bedun-e mo’attali anjâm shod.) “My work got done without any delay.”
- معطلی بانک یه چیز دیگهست. (mo’attali-ye bânk ye chiz-e dige-st.) “The wait at the bank is something else entirely.”
Cultural note
معطلی has an almost cultural weight in Iran. Long queues at notary offices, vehicle registration centres, and tax bureaus mean that being made to wait is a shared experience most Iranians can laugh or complain about together. The phrase معطلی دادن (to give someone delay) is particularly common: it puts the blame on the institution rather than on the person waiting.