Link Centre Dictionary

loiter

loi·ter

UK/ˈlɔɪtə(ɹ)/ US/ˈlɔɪtɚ/ rare archaic

verb

1.

be about

  • “The high school students like to loiter in the Central Square”
  • “Who is this man that is hanging around the department?”
Synonyms

Origin

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.

Phrases

  • build castles in the air
  • loiter munition From the verb or the noun loiter
  • loiter time From the verb or the noun loiter
  • loitering munition From the verb or the noun loiter
  • time bandit
  • time burglar
  • time thief

Related words

Word family

Broader terms

Narrower terms

WordNet 2.1 (Princeton University). Wiktionary (CC BY-SA). CMU Pronouncing Dictionary. WordNet 2.1 Copyright Princeton University. All rights reserved. Wiktionary content is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Licence.