SYNONYMS | EXAMPLES | WORD ORIGIN noun, plural loaves [lohvz] /loʊvz/ a portion of bread or cake baked in a mass, usually oblong with a rounded top.
a shaped or molded mass of food, as of sugar or chopped meat: a veal loaf.
British the rounded head of a cabbage, lettuce, etc. Slang : Older Use head or brains: Use your loaf. Origin of loaf 1 before 950; Middle English lo(o)f, Old English hlāf loaf, bread; cognate with German Laib, Old Norse hleifr, Gothic hlaifs
verb (used without object) to idle away time: He figured the mall was as good a place as any for loafing.
to lounge or saunter lazily and idly: We loafed for hours along the water's edge.
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verb (used with object) to pass idly (usually followed by away ): to loaf one's life away.
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Origin of loaf 2 1825–35, Americanism ; back formation from
loafer Related forms un·loaf·ing , adjective Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Related Words for loaf cube ,
bun ,
pastry ,
cake ,
dough ,
slab ,
laze ,
loll ,
twist ,
mass ,
roll ,
lump ,
trifle ,
lie ,
stall ,
slack ,
relax ,
goldbrick ,
dillydally ,
loiter Examples from the Web for loaf Contemporary Examples of loaf The featured photo for the list, first of all, is as white as a loaf of Wonder Bread and as male as a football locker room.
This 2-0 was a clear-cut win, a sharp slice through a loaf , no ambiguity, no crumbs.
In her cramped kitchen she mashed pork fat with oatmeal and sculpted a loaf , which she fried up in patties.
To fill demand, the Martins collaborated with baker John Gendusa who developed a 40-inch loaf of French bread to reduce waste.
On two of the most divisive social issues, most Republicans seem to want to concede a quarter loaf and move on.
Historical Examples of loaf It has all been very sweet, but it will also be sweet to loaf awhile.
They want to loaf about, and drink, and be a nuisance to everybody, like some of the rich ones.
If it had been a loaf of bread he thought it would be more consistent.
The shape of the loaf must also be taken into consideration.
Fig. 14 illustrates a loaf of bread that has risen too much.
British Dictionary definitions for loaf noun plural loaves (ləʊvz ) a shaped mass of baked bread
any shaped or moulded mass of food, such as cooked meat
slang the head; sense use your loaf!
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Word Origin for loaf Old English hlāf; related to Old High German hleib bread, Old Norse hleifr, Latin libum cake
verb (intr) to loiter or lounge around in an idle way
(tr foll by away ) to spend (time) idly he loafed away his life
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Word Origin for loaf C19: perhaps back formation from loafer
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for loaf n. late 13c., from Old English hlaf "portion of bread baked in a mass of definite form," from Proto-Germanic *khlaibuz (cf. Old Norse hleifr , Swedish lev , Old Frisian hlef , Old High German hleib , German Laib , Gothic hlaifs "bread, loaf"), of uncertain origin, perhaps connected to Old English hlifian "to raise higher, tower," on the notion of the bread rising as it bakes, but it is unclear whether "loaf" or "bread" is the original sense. Finnish leipä , Old Church Slavonic chlebu , Lithuanian klepas probably are Germanic loan words. Meaning "chopped meat shaped like a bread loaf" is attested from 1787.
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v. 1835, American English, back-formation from loafer (1830), which often is regarded as a variant of land loper (1795), a partial loan-translation of German Landläufer "vagabond," from Land "land" + Läufer "runner," from laufen "to run" (see leap ). But OED finds this connection "not very probable." Related: Loafed ; loafing .
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
Idioms and Phrases with loaf see half a loaf is better than none.
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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
