loaf2
- 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.
- to pass idly (usually followed by away): to loaf one's life away.
Origin of loaf2
Synonyms
See more synonyms for loaf on Thesaurus.comExamples from the Web for loafing
Historical Examples
He don't like him loafing around here: he sent him home last Sunday.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
Even if they make you a street-scavenger, remember that is better than loafing.
Brighter Britain! (Volume 1 of 2)William Delisle Hay
Instead of the loafing chairs we still had rusty old sabres then.
Erdgeist (Earth-Spirit)Frank Wedekind
Damascus is more inclined to loafing or to dancing than to reading.
Out-of-Doors in the Holy LandHenry Van Dyke
What's all that loafing about galleries, I ask ye, but the worst of all idling?
One Of ThemCharles James Lever
loaf1
- a shaped mass of baked bread
- any shaped or moulded mass of food, such as cooked meat
- slang the head; senseuse your loaf!
Word Origin
loaf2
- (intr) to loiter or lounge around in an idle way
- (tr foll by away) to spend (time) idlyhe loafed away his life
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for loafing
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.
loaf
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.
Idioms and Phrases with loafing
loaf
see half a loaf is better than none.