loiter
Americanverb (used without object)
-
loiters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
loitered,
past participle, past
-
loitering
present participle
-
to linger aimlessly or as if aimless in or about a place.
to loiter around the bus terminal.
- Synonyms:
- loaf
-
to move in a slow, idle manner, making purposeless stops in the course of a trip, journey, errand, etc..
to loiter on the way to work.
-
to waste time or dawdle over work.
He loiters over his homework until one in the morning.
verb (used with object)
-
loiters,
present (3rd person singular)
-
loitered,
past participle, past
-
loitering
present participle
verb
Synonym Usage
Loiter, dally, dawdle, idle imply moving or acting slowly, stopping for unimportant reasons, and in general wasting time. To loiter is to linger aimlessly: to loiter outside a building. To dally is to loiter indecisively or to delay as if free from care or responsibility: to dally on the way home. To dawdle is to saunter, stopping often, and taking a great deal of time, or to fritter away time working in a halfhearted way: to dawdle over a task. To idle is to move slowly and aimlessly, or to spend a great deal of time doing nothing: to idle away the hours.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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loitersimple
-
loiterssimple
-
have loiteredperfect
-
has loiteredperfect
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am loiteringprogressive
-
are loiteringprogressive
-
is loiteringprogressive
-
have been loiteringperfect progressive
-
has been loiteringperfect progressive
Past
-
loiteredsimple
-
had loiteredperfect
-
was loiteringprogressive
-
were loiteringprogressive
-
had been loiteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of loiter
First recorded before 1300–50; Middle English loteren, loytren, perhaps from Middle Dutch loteren “to stagger, totter”; compare Dutch leuteren “to dawdle”
Explanation
To loiter is to hang around a place with no real purpose, usually somewhere where you are not welcome — like under the “No Loitering” sign at a convenience store. If you’re a dawdler, or a loafer, then you are probably inclined to loiter from time to time. The verb loiter is similar to “hang out,” but it has a more negative connotation and is sometimes associated with acting illegally. You might hang out at your friend’s house watching movies, but you would loiter by the vending machine at school when you are supposed be in class.
Vocabulary lists containing loiter
Fever 1793
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Ghost
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 19–24
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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:
They can loiter over the battlefield as long as 20 hours on a single tank of fuel, allowing them to wait for mobile missile launchers to emerge from hiding and then strike them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 16, 2026
During this phase, the spacecraft will follow a large "loiter" orbit that stretches roughly 2 million miles from Earth.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 14, 2026
On a sticky Delhi afternoon in the late 1980s, a group of architecture students loiter, argue and dream their way through a city that seems permanently unfinished.
From BBC ● Feb. 13, 2026
In the Plus bonus mini-episode: Starbucks wanted to be a classy Italian espresso house, but it became a modern milkshake shop for teens to loiter and flirt.
From Slate ● Oct. 19, 2024
In the manner of all high schoolers everywhere, my friends and I liked to loiter.
From "Becoming" by Michelle Obama
Alexis Perez, 52, loiters beside the settlement where he typically spends two weeks straight, working 12-hour days before returning to his family.
From Barron's ● Jun. 12, 2026
“I don’t know,” she replies, as the camera loiters on her distress.
From New York Times ● Feb. 1, 2024
Seemingly intent on not losing her, McSweeney follows the woman into a shop, then loiters outside until she emerges.
From BBC ● Dec. 14, 2022
Saturn — our solar system’s other large gaseous planet — now rises in the late afternoon, ahead of Jupiter, and loiters near the goat shape of Capricornus.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 1, 2022
If the passman loiters through the three or four years, it is mainly the fault—or the virtue—of the public school he comes from.
From An American at Oxford by John Corbin
A gaggle of reporters and neighbors loitered around the property filming as a helicopter hovered overhead.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 26, 2026
In the days, weeks and months leading up to the release of “Michael,” the one question that loitered at the top of my mind was why Jackson’s estate wasn’t content to leave well enough alone.
From Salon ● Apr. 25, 2026
He loitered in the streets with his friends and called them “my pippin.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 15, 2026
Border Patrol cops loitered on the sidewalks of a popular nightlife strip, where they got an earful from a passerby in a pink pointelle shirt.
From Slate ● Aug. 13, 2025
Diego and I loitered on the side of the math building while we waited for the final bell to ring.
From "We Are the Ants" by Shaun David Hutchinson
“For privacy purposes, they’re not flying just in the sky and loitering, they’re responding at the onset of a call, usually through 9-1-1,” Warner said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 3, 2026
A Russian deep sea 'research' ship, the Yantar, has been seen loitering close to the points where these cables come ashore.
From BBC ● Jun. 30, 2026
Over the past week, the ship broadcast that it was loitering off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, according to maritime-data firm Kpler.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 15, 2026
The Defense Department last week paid AeroVironment $186 million for the first procurement in a five-year, $990 million contract for its Switchblade loitering missile systems.
From MarketWatch ● Mar. 2, 2026
He was still loitering, trying to think of something else to say, when Henry glanced up at him.
From "The Secret History" by Donna Tartt
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.
