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)
-
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
-
have been loafingperfect progressive
-
has been loafingperfect progressive
Past
-
loafedsimple
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had loafedperfect
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was loafingprogressive
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were loafingprogressive
-
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:
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
You’ve decided to make a sandwich and reach for your loaf of bread, but the “sell-by date” on the bag has passed.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026
After considerable reporting, she crowned the famous cranberry-walnut loaf at Le Diplomate.
From Salon ● Jun. 22, 2026
He brightened at once, slipped the round loaf into his pocket, and made a beeline for the kitchen.
From "The Long-Lost Home" by Maryrose Wood
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
A few loaves from a bakery or a stack of warm tortillas instantly make a table feel generous and give people something to reach for while they decide what else to try.
From Salon ● Mar. 15, 2026
He is one of the few people outside the military who travel to the most dangerous areas, delivering bread to outlying villages that he makes in his own bakery, which produces 17,000 loaves per week.
From BBC ● Feb. 24, 2026
Loic works alone and starts early, but he still manages to bake around 700 loaves a day, making locals flock in lines before his white truck.
From Barron's ● Feb. 21, 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
“You take an ounce of peanut butter and spread it over five loafs of bread and you say everybody got something.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 11, 2021
He loafs about with a toady and calls it friendship.
From A Dog with a Bad Name by Talbot Baines Reed
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
He loafed around for the next two months and used up the money he had been saving to buy me a ring.
From Slate ● Aug. 29, 2016
Away from home, he loafed, frequented music halls, joined dining clubs and secret societies.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 15, 2015
Perhaps 40 pelicans loafed around the island’s shoreline or circled in the air above.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 28, 2014
You loafed getting back down the court after your team scored.
From "The Great Santini" by Pat Conroy
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
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
Dubois probably hastened the trade by loafing in the first period of Thursday’s loss to Tampa Bay.
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 23, 2021
They stood loafing on the corner, telling jokes and laughing.
From "A Tree Grows in Brooklyn" by Betty Smith
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.
