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. (archaic) To stroll about without any aim or purpose, to ramble, to wander.
   • 1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, Canto XXXVIII, page 59:

     With weary steps I loiter on,
     ⁠Tho’ always under alter’d skies
     ⁠The purple from the distance dies,
     My prospect and horizon gone.

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

   • 1948 September and October, Canon Roger Lloyd, “The Art and Mystery of the Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 331:

     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.

   • 2015 January 31, Daniel Taylor, “David Silva seizes point for Manchester City as Chelsea are checked”, in The Guardian‎^[1], 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, 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.

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

Derived terms

From the verb or the noun loiter

• antiloitering
• loiterature
• loiterer
• loitering munition, loiter munition
• loitering → loiteringly
• loiter-sack
• loiter time

 

Translations

to stand about without any aim or purpose

• Azerbaijani: veyillənmək
• Bulgarian: мотая се (motaja se), разтакавам се (raztakavam se)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 遊蕩／游荡 (zh) (yóudàng)

• Czech: lelkovat (cs), okounět impf
• Dutch: rondhangen (nl)
• Finnish: maleksia (fi), roikkua (fi), seisoksia, munia (fi), vetelehtiä (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 (it), 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 (vâystâdan) (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), drälla (sv), lulla
• 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; […]

Anagrams

• Loiret, Lortie, toiler, triole