loaf
1 Americannoun
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loaves
plural
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a portion of bread or cake baked in a shaped or molded mass, usually oblong with a rounded top.
I try to keep a loaf of sliced bread in the freezer.
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a shaped or molded mass of food, as of ground meat or vegetables.
The loaf is made with lentils and vegetables, and you can see the colorful bits of bell peppers speckled through it.
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British.
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the rounded head of a cabbage, lettuce, etc.
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Slang: Older Use. head or brains.
Use your loaf.
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verb (used without object)
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loafs,
present (3rd person singular)
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loafed,
past participle, past
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loafing
present participle
verb (used with object)
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loafs,
present (3rd person singular)
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loafed,
past participle, past
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loafing
present participle
noun
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a shaped mass of baked bread
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any shaped or moulded mass of food, such as cooked meat
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slang the head; sense
use your loaf!
verb
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(intr) to loiter or lounge around in an idle way
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to spend (time) idly
he loafed away his life
Synonym Usage
See lounge.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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loafsimple
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loafssimple
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have loafedperfect
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has loafedperfect
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am loafingprogressive
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are loafingprogressive
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is loafingprogressive
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have been loafingperfect progressive
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has been loafingperfect progressive
Past
-
loafedsimple
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had loafedperfect
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was loafingprogressive
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were loafingprogressive
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had been loafingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of loaf1
First recorded before 950; Middle English lo(o)f, Old English hlāf “loaf, bread”; cognate with German Laib, Old Norse hleifr, Gothic hlaifs
Origin of loaf2
An Americanism first recorded in 1825–35; back formation from loafer
Explanation
A loaf is a delicious mass of bread. The kitchen smells great — it must be time to pull that loaf of sourdough out of the oven! If you're a lazy lover of baked goods, your dream vacation might look like this: the chance to loaf around eating one fresh-baked loaf of bread after another. The verb loaf means "laze around doing nothing," but its origin remains a mystery to word experts — although you might look like a bit like a loaf of bread when you loaf on the sofa covered in blankets.
Vocabulary lists containing loaf
"Mending Wall," by Robert Frost
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A Toast to Bread
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The House of the Scorpion
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Large, white, long-haired cat the Big Lebowski settled into a loaf position by my head.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 10, 2026
If you take a loaf of bread as an example, first the grain is grown, harvested, milled and stored until it is ready to be taken to a factory.
From BBC ● Aug. 4, 2026
Very few people would consider a fresh bakery loaf to be “ultra” processed.
From Slate ● Jul. 12, 2026
Not every dinner party loaf requires a sourdough starter and a three-day commitment.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
The gravy on the meat loaf has already formed a skin.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
Craftsman’s Valley features booths where artisans show off such skills as blacksmithing or glassblowing, and the Grist Mill churns out loaves of the park’s famed cinnamon bread.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 30, 2026
Reality TV star Queen Mercy Atang arrived in one of the evening's most attention-grabbing looks, a dress, she said, was made from more than 500 loaves of bread.
From BBC ● May 10, 2026
Throughout these trips, he distributed tens of thousands of loaves since the start of the war in 2022, mostly to elderly people who have no support from their families or from the state, Nervi said.
From Barron's ● Feb. 21, 2026
When SF made up 20% or more of the recipe, loaves became smaller and firmer.
From Science Daily ● Feb. 8, 2026
From then on I tried to snatch two loaves each day.
From "Milkweed" by Jerry Spinelli
Remove, punch down, and knead a few times before dividing in half to form two loafs.
From Salon ● Mar. 12, 2024
“That’s our biggest emphasis, minimizing our missed assignments and our loafs, which is just effort in playing,” Niumatalolo said.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 9, 2022
He stresses the “HITS” principle — his acronym for Hustle, Intensity, Takeaways and playing Smart — and counts loafs in practice.
From Seattle Times ● Sep. 5, 2022
“Today in the film room we pointed out all the loafs and all the missed assignments, so we can definitely get better week to week and now it’s about being consistent week to week.”
From Washington Times ● Nov. 20, 2018
Two days he loafs round at mealtimes, listening to their rich converse and saying he'd like to know who's a better friend of this outfit than he's been for twenty years.
From Ma Pettengill by Harry Leon Wilson
The nearly 400-pound birdfeeder bandit fell for a buffet of birdseed and suet and loafed into a tube-shaped trailer trap.
From Washington Times ● Apr. 19, 2021
But far more it was because the Warriors struggled—because Andre Iguodala got hurt, because Kevin Durant loafed after rebounds, because the Warriors never quite clicked.
From Slate ● Jun. 8, 2018
And in the “early candle-light of old age,” Whitman loafed by the waters of Timber Creek, near his friend Harry Stafford’s family farm in Laurel Springs, New Jersey.
From The New Yorker ● Mar. 22, 2017
Harper loafed after it and Baxter, as Harper as has done to so many opposing outfielders, punished him for it.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 21, 2013
One day his southern neighbor, Joe Mondragon, loafed over.
From "The Milagro Beanfield War" by John Nichols
One of the reasons a steakhouse is such a prime place to order meatloaf is simple: the meat they are loafing is usually excellent.
From Salon ● Mar. 11, 2026
Walt Whitman inspired a former teacher’s fascination with loafing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 14, 2024
Singer-songwriter popularized beach bum soft rock with “Margaritaville” and turned a celebration of loafing into a billion-dollar empire of restaurants, resorts and frozen concoctions.
From Seattle Times ● Dec. 31, 2023
We struck up a conversation — about the men loafing around us, about our day jobs, whatever — and promised to meet at the bar again the following week.
From New York Times ● Apr. 12, 2021
A dozen boys were loafing there on the grass after dinner, and a kitchen rattle from the wing of one of the buildings accompanied their talk.
From "A Separate Peace" by John Knowles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
