Д-54

HE У ДЕЛ бытье, остаться и т. п. PrepP Invar subj-compl with copula (subj: human or, rare, nonagreeing postmodif ) (to be, remain etc) without work (often as a result of a firing, retirement, or dismissal)

X не у дел = X is out of work ( out of a job)

X is not working.

Когда мы жили вместе, она была не у дел по болезни и подрабатывала у меня, помогая по хозяйству (Мандельштам 2). At the time when we lived in the same apartment, she was out of work because of ill-health and I gave her a little money for helping with my housework (2a).

Муж (Сони) - бывший лётчик, в отставке по болезни. Больно ударила его эта отставка, не мог примириться, что не у дел (Грекова 3). Her (Sonya's) husband was a former pilot, retired because of illness. That retirement had hit him hard. He couldn't live with the fact that he wasn't working (3a).

И вот она (революция) пришла... а он (Аверкий Степанович), прирождённый и постоянный рабочелюбец... очутился на бобах, не у дел, в опустевшем посёлке, из которого разбежались рабочие, частью шедшие тут за меньшевиками (Пастернак 1). ( context transl ) Now it (the revolution) had come.. .but he (Averkii Stepanovich), the born and faithful champion of the proletariat.. .had been left high and dry, instead of being in the thick of things, he was in a remote village from which the workers - some of whom were Mensheviks - had fled! (1a).