To be not busy.
As a visual metaphor, it implies the opposite to the expression ‘flat out’. A lizard drinking is visually flat against the ground, still, stationary, prostrate, prone and apparently inactive - the opposite of what a person is like when they are busy.
The primary
definition that I heard for years amongst colleagues and friends fluent in Strine was the 'not busy' version. It was only recently that I have heard it used to mean '
hard at work' or 'busy'. It
feels that the traditional components of visual metaphor and humour in the Strine lexicon have been
lost or the expression misconstrued at some point.