loaf

¹

[ lohf ]

noun

, plural loaves [lohvz].

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.

loaf

²

[ lohf ]

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

verb (used with object)

1. to pass idly (usually followed by away ):

   to loaf one's life away.

loaf

¹

/ ləʊf /

verb

1. intr to loiter or lounge around in an idle way
2. trfoll byaway to spend (time) idly

   he loafed away his life

loaf

²

/ 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!

Other Words From

• un·loafing adjective

Word History and Origins

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

Word History and Origins

Origin of loaf¹

C19: perhaps back formation from loafer

Origin of loaf²

Old English hlāf; related to Old High German hleib bread, Old Norse hleifr, Latin libum cake

Idioms and Phrases

see half a loaf is better than none .

Synonym Study

See lounge.

Example Sentences

Toaster ovens can do the trick, of course, but while they’re usually long enough to accommodate these extra-large loaves, they can’t always fit more than one slice at a time.

From Popular-Science

Whether you’re making sourdough bread or loaves made with commercial dry yeast, your bread dough is a living thing.

From Washington Post

Unless you’ve missed every single nutrition article since the early 1990s, you probably know that, in a nutritional face-off, a whole-wheat loaf beats Wonder Bread every time.

From Outside Online

I dreamed of space telescopes the size of a loaf of bread—not one, but an army, fanning out into orbit like so many advance scouts.

From MIT Technology Review

Remove the loaf from the oven, and place it on a wire rack to cool.

From Outside Online

He had a special knife designed to cut the dense loaf, and a ceremony to precede cutting the cake.

From The Daily Beast

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.

From The Daily Beast

This 2-0 was a clear-cut win, a sharp slice through a loaf, no ambiguity, no crumbs.

From The Daily Beast

It is built not in a long bun, but in a half-loaf of fresh, tawny-crusted Italian bread.

From The Daily Beast

In her cramped kitchen she mashed pork fat with oatmeal and sculpted a loaf, which she fried up in patties.

From The Daily Beast

Toward eight o'clock a pretty, capable-looking girl of twelve came out of the house and bought a loaf of bread at the baker's.

From Project Gutenberg

The Corn-law compels us to pay three times the value for a loaf of bread.

From Project Gutenberg

The brown loaf was cut by a very excited little hostess into five thick squares; the cheese into four.

From Project Gutenberg

They were knives; anyway, they were used to spread the delicious morsels of butter on the brown loaf.

From Project Gutenberg

A miche is a loaf of fine manchet bread, of good quality; see Cotgrave.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

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