loiter
Part of speech: verb
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: aeronautics
aerospace
aviation
business
engineering
government
military
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
politics
war
Etymology: From Middle English loitren, from Middle Dutch loteren ("to shake, wag, wobble"; > modern Dutch leuteren (“to dawdle, ramble”)), ultimately connected with a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *lūtaną (“to bend, stoop, cower, shrink from, decline”), see lout. Cognate with Dutch leuteren (“to dawdle”), Alemannic German lottern (“to wobble”), German lottern (“live a slovenly life”). More at lout, little.
Inflected forms:
form: loiters
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: loitering
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: loitered
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: loitered
pos: verb
tags: past
form: loiters
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: To stand about without any aim or purpose; to stand about idly.
pos: verb
examples: For some reason, they discourage loitering outside the store, but encourage it inside.
gloss: To stroll about without any aim or purpose, to ramble, to wander.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
examples: With weary steps I loiter on,
⁠Tho’ always under alter’d skies
⁠The purple from the distance dies,
My prospect and horizon gone.
gloss: To remain at a certain place instead of moving on.
pos: verb
examples: The dancing, which had been suspended, now recommenced with additional animation, and De Candale claimed Francesca's hand; but the rooms were crowded, and they stood for some time loitering on one of the terraces.
For on what does the whole vast and varied membership of the craft rest? It rests, of course, on the little boys whom you see any day loitering about on the far end of station platforms in every part of the British Isles, each one with his grubby notebook and blunt pencil, and his list of all the engines on the railway system, collecting their numbers and names in the vain hope that one day he will have collected them all.
[Sergio] Agüero, as usual, was loitering with intent and swung his left foot at the ball. The shot was going wide but [David] Silva was there to apply the decisive touch inside the six-yard area.
Using the transect method, the counter had to maintain a general progress along the transect and was not able to loiter at one spot for too long.
gloss: For an aircraft to remain in the air near a target.
pos: verb
gloss: A standing or strolling about without any aim or purpose.
pos: noun
examples: Oh, Sir, we just got up in the morning and had a loiter and a pipe on the green; then we got our breakfasts; […]
Synonyms: arse about
arse around
bludge
bum around
cabbage
clown around
dally
dawdle
dick about
dick around
diddle
dilly-dally
dretch
drumble
faff
faff about
faff around
fanny about
fanny around
fart about
fart around
fiddle about
fiddle around
fool about
fool around
footle
forslow
goof around
goof off
hang about
hang around
hang out
horse around
idle
jerk off
lallygag
lamp
laze
laze about
laze around
linger
loaf
loaf about
loaf around
loiter
lollop
lollygag
mess around
mill about
mill around
muck about
muck around
piddle
pingle
stand by
tarry
tool around
waste time
while
Antonyms: energize
leave
make a move
scraffle
scramble
take action
work
Related words: build castles in the air
time bandit
time burglar
time thief
idler
lazy
shirk
Derived words: antiloitering
Floyder
loiterature
loiterer
loiteringly
loitering munition
loiter munition
loitering → loiteringly
loiter-sack
loiter time
Translations: