aloof
[ uh-loof ]
/ əˈluf /
adverb
at a distance, especially in feeling or interest; apart: They always stood aloof from their classmates.
adjective
reserved or reticent; indifferent; disinterested: Because of his shyness, he had the reputation of being aloof.
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RELATED WORDS
haughty, standoffish, unsympathetic, distant, detached, indifferent, unresponsive, above, apart, casual, chilly, cold, cool, forbidding, hard-boiled, loner, reserved, secluded, solitary, supercilious
Nearby words
- alongside,
- alongside of,
- alonso,
- alonso, alicia,
- alonso, dámaso,
- aloofness,
- alope,
- alopecia,
- alopecia areata,
- alopecia capitis totalis
Origin of aloof
SYNONYMS FOR aloof
ANTONYMS FOR aloof
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for aloof
aloof
/ (əˈluːf) /
adjective
distant, unsympathetic, or supercilious in manner, attitude, or feeling
Word Origin for aloof
C16: from a- 1 + loof, a variant of luff
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
aloof
1530s, from a- (1) + Middle English loof "weather gage," also "windward direction," probably from Dutch loef (Middle Dutch lof) "the weather side of a ship." Originally a nautical order to keep the ship's head to the wind, thus to stay clear of a lee-shore or some other quarter; hence the figurative sense of "at a distance, apart" (1580s). Related: Aloofly; aloofness.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper