loaf

¹ American  

[lohf] / loʊf /

noun

plural

loaves

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. British.

   1. the rounded head of a cabbage, lettuce, etc.

   2. Slang: Older Use. head or brains.

      Use your loaf.

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loaf ² American  

[lohf] / loʊf /

verb (used without object)

1. to idle away time.

   He figured the mall was as good a place as any for loafing.

2. to lounge or saunter lazily and idly.

   We loafed for hours along the water's edge.

   Synonyms:

   idle, loll

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verb (used with object)

1. to pass idly (usually followed byaway ).

   to loaf one's life away.

loaf ¹ British  

/ ləʊf /

noun

1. a shaped mass of baked bread

2. any shaped or moulded mass of food, such as cooked meat

3. slang the head; sense

   use your loaf!

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loaf ² British  

/ ləʊf /

verb

1. (intr) to loiter or lounge around in an idle way

2. to spend (time) idly

   he loafed away his life

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loaf Idioms  

1. see half a loaf is better than none.

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Related Words

See lounge.

Other Word Forms

• unloafing adjective

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

Example Sentences

As one dinner began, my family unhappily discovered I’d poked a hole in the crust of a loaf of bread and hollowed out its soft insides for my own enjoyment.

From The Wall Street Journal

Or, as the writer John Updike once confessed, “I don’t like meat to look like animals. I prefer it in the form of sausages, hamburgers and meat loaf, far removed from the living thing.”

From The Wall Street Journal

I schlepped in oversized bags of flour and sugar to make cranberry-orange and pumpkin-chocolate loaves for Christmas—leaving a fine dusting of powder in the pantry.

From Salon

It was a stack of bread, dozens of flat black loaves piled one on top of another.

From Literature

The resulting sourdough loaves were not only higher in nutritional value but also showed a broader range of flavors.

From Science Daily

Related Words

• bun
• cake
• cube
• dough
• pastry
• slab