aloof
[uh-loof]
- at a distance, especially in feeling or interest; apart: They always stood aloof from their classmates.
Show More
- reserved or reticent; indifferent; disinterested: Because of his shyness, he had the reputation of being aloof.
Show More
Origin of aloof
Synonyms
See more synonyms for aloof on Thesaurus.com2. cool, detached; distant, standoffish; snobbish, haughty, disdainful.
Antonyms
1. near. 2. warm, open, gregarious, outgoing.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for aloof
Contemporary Examples
They should ask themselves instead how anyone as bored and aloof as Barack Obama could bother himself to hate anything.
A Utah mother charged with killing six of her infant children was described as cold and aloof by a neighbor.
I can see how it would make people come across as cagey or aloof.
Aloof and bookish, Pius XI (Achille Ratti) spent years as a Vatican librarian before becoming a diplomat and cardinal.
With irony and wit he charmed a nation, but displayed a detachment that kept him aloof from the passions of his time.
The New New Left Is No New Frontier and JFK Was No LiberalJames L. Swanson, Michael F. Bishop
October 8, 2013
Historical Examples
She was like the falling of this starlight, pure, aloof, and strange and gentle.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
Little Fay was as obstreperous as Tony was disagreeably silent and aloof.
Jan and Her JobL. Allen Harker
Peter stood there silent, aloof, detached; and he appeared quite cool.
Jan and Her JobL. Allen Harker
She stood as cold and aloof as earlier she had been warm and clinging.
The Historical Nights Entertainment, Second SeriesRafael Sabatini
Even so; and of all men Socrates stood most aloof from such crimes.
The MemorabiliaXenophon
aloof
- distant, unsympathetic, or supercilious in manner, attitude, or feeling
Show More
Word Origin
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
Word Origin and History for aloof
adj.
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.
Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper