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Loiter
Definitions
- 1 A standing or strolling about without any aim or purpose.
"Oh, Sir, we just got up in the morning and had a loiter and a pipe on the green; then we got our breakfasts; […]"
- 1 To stand about without any aim or purpose; to stand about idly.
"For some reason, they discourage loitering outside the store, but encourage it inside."
- 2 be about a place without any apparent purpose wordnet
- 3 To stroll about without any aim or purpose, to ramble, to wander. archaic
"With weary steps I loiter on, Tho’ always under alter’d skies The purple from the distance dies, My prospect and horizon gone."
- 4 To remain at a certain place instead of moving on.
"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."
- 5 For an aircraft to remain in the air near a target.
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 Lotterbube (“rascal”). More at lout, little.
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 Lotterbube (“rascal”). More at lout, little.
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