loiter

loiter

English

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.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ˈlɔɪtə(ɹ)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈlɔɪtɚ/, [ˈlɔɪɾɚ]

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔɪtə(ɹ)

Verb

loiter (third-person singular simple present loiters, present participle loitering, simple past and past participle loitered)

1. To stand about without any aim or purpose; to stand about idly.

   Synonyms: (Malaysia, Singapore) lepak, linger, hang around

   For some reason, they discourage loitering outside the store, but encourage it inside.

2. To remain at a certain place instead of moving on.
   • 1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), OCLC 630079698, page 47:

     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.

   • 2015 January 31, Daniel Taylor, “David Silva seizes point for Manchester City as Chelsea are checked”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 8 March 2017:

     [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.

   • 2019, Li Huang; James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, DOI:10.1080/01434632.2019.1596115, page 4:

     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.

3. (military, aviation) For an aircraft to remain in the air near a target.

Translations

to stand about without any aim or purpose

Azerbaijani: veyillənmək Bulgarian: мотая се (motaja se), разтакавам се (raztakavam se) Chinese: Mandarin: 遊蕩 (zh) Czech: lelkovat (cs), okounět impf Dutch: rondhangen (nl) Finnish: maleksia (fi), roikkua (fi), seisoksia, munia (fi) French: flâner (fr), traîner (fr) Galician: lacazanear (gl) German: rumlungern, rumhängen, herumhängen, abhängen (de), herumlungern (de), herumlümmeln, trödeln (de), herumtrödeln (de), gammeln (de), herumgammeln (de), sich herumdrücken Greek: Ancient: μένω (ménō) Hungarian: álldogál (hu), lézeng (hu), ácsorog (hu) Icelandic: slóra (is) Italian: bighellonare (it), attardarsi, aggirarsi (it), gironzolare (it), vagabondare (it), oziare (it), sostare (it), indugiare (it) Latin: moror, sedeo Maori: paratinaku, whakatinaku, karioi, mōnaroa Nepali: डुल्नु (ḍulnu) Persian: وایستادن‎ (vAystAdan) (colloquial, Iran) Polish: wałęsać się (pl), kręcić się (pl) impf, szwendać się (pl) impf, włóczyć się (pl) impf, łazęgować impf, wałęsać się (pl) impf, szlajać się (pl) impf Portuguese: vadiar (pt) Russian: торча́ть (ru) impf (torčátʹ), окола́чиваться (ru) impf (okoláčivatʹsja), ошива́ться (ru) impf (ošivátʹsja) Spanish: holgazanear (es), perder el tiempo (es), merodear (es), vagar (es), vaguear (es) Swedish: driva omkring, driva runt, hänga (sv) Tagalog: mag-ansikot, mag-asikot Ukrainian: стоя́ти стовпо́м impf (stojáty stovpóm) Vietnamese: la cà (vi) Walloon: holer (wa), trinner (wa)

Noun

loiter (plural loiters)

1. A standing or strolling about without any aim or purpose.
   • 1865, Edward Spooner, Parson and People (page 125)

     Oh, Sir, we just got up in the morning and had a loiter and a pipe on the green; then we got our breakfasts; […]

Derived terms

• loiter time

Anagrams

• Loiret, Lortie, toiler, triole