loaf1

[lohf] /loʊf/
noun, plural loaves
[lohvz] /loʊvz/ (Show IPA)
1.
a portion of bread or cake baked in a mass, usually oblong with a rounded top.
2.
a shaped or molded mass of food, as of sugar or chopped meat:
a veal loaf.
3.
British.
  1. the rounded head of a cabbage, lettuce, etc.
  2. Slang: Older Use. head or brains:
    Use your loaf.
Origin
before 950; Middle English lo(o)f, Old English hlāf loaf, bread; cognate with German Laib, Old Norse hleifr, Gothic hlaifs

loaf2

[lohf] /loʊf/
verb (used without object)
1.
to idle away time:
He figured the mall was as good a place as any for loafing.
2.
to lounge or saunter lazily and idly:
We loafed for hours along the water's edge.
verb (used with object)
3.
to pass idly (usually followed by away):
to loaf one's life away.
Origin
1825-35, Americanism; back formation from loafer
Related forms
unloafing, adjective
Synonyms
2. loll, idle.
Examples from the web for loaf
  • Alternatively, roll the dough into a loaf and chop off slices.
  • Pour an equal portion of the mousse into each of the prepared loaf pans.
  • Many other settled for half a loaf rather than get nothing.
  • Cut two or three slashes on top of each loaf using a sharp serrated knife.
  • In terms of consumption utility, giving a dollar to the beggar to buy a loaf of bread may well be more efficient.
  • Grab a loaf of their ciabatta or focaccia, and you'll have a filling meal on your hands.
  • The process requires a standard loaf pan or the bread will not rise.
  • After all, if stealing a loaf of bread makes you racist, then guilty as charged.
  • Consider the comparison between a loaf of good whole grain bread, and cheap white bread.
  • Make a plain stuffing and fill the spaces, shaping into an oval loaf.
British Dictionary definitions for loaf

loaf1

/ləʊf/
noun (pl) loaves (ləʊvz)
1.
a shaped mass of baked bread
2.
any shaped or moulded mass of food, such as cooked meat
3.
(slang) the head; sense: use your loaf!
Word Origin
Old English hlāf; related to Old High German hleib bread, Old Norse hleifr, Latin libum cake

loaf2

/ləʊf/
verb
1.
(intransitive) to loiter or lounge around in an idle way
2.
(transitive) foll by away. to spend (time) idly: he loafed away his life
Word Origin
C19: perhaps back formation from loafer
Word Origin and History for loaf
n.

late 13c., from Old English hlaf "portion of bread baked in a mass of definite form," from Proto-Germanic *khlaibuz (cf. Old Norse hleifr, Swedish lev, Old Frisian hlef, Old High German hleib, German Laib, Gothic hlaifs "bread, loaf"), of uncertain origin, perhaps connected to Old English hlifian "to raise higher, tower," on the notion of the bread rising as it bakes, but it is unclear whether "loaf" or "bread" is the original sense. Finnish leipä, Old Church Slavonic chlebu, Lithuanian klepas probably are Germanic loan words. Meaning "chopped meat shaped like a bread loaf" is attested from 1787.

v.

1835, American English, back-formation from loafer (1830), which often is regarded as a variant of land loper (1795), a partial loan-translation of German Landläufer "vagabond," from Land "land" + Läufer "runner," from laufen "to run" (see leap). But OED finds this connection "not very probable." Related: Loafed; loafing.

Idioms and Phrases with loaf

loaf

see: half a loaf is better than none