loiter
Plural: loiters
Verb
Verb Forms: loitered, loitering, loiters
- To stand or wait idly, often without apparent purpose.
- be about
- "The high school students like to loiter in the Central Square"
- To stand about without any aim or purpose; to stand about idly.
- To stroll about without any aim or purpose, to ramble, to wander.
- To remain at a certain place instead of moving on.
- For an aircraft to remain in the air near a target.
Noun
- A standing or strolling about without any aim or purpose.
Examples
- Don’t LOITER on your turn; your Words With Friends opponent is waiting impatiently.
- For some reason, they discourage loitering outside the store, but encourage it inside.
Origin / 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.
Synonyms
footle, hang around, lallygag, linger, loaf, lollygag, lounge, lurk, mess about, mill about, mill around, tarry, arse about, arse around, bludge, bum around, cabbage, clown around, dally, dawdle, dick about, dick around, diddle, dilly-dally, dretch, drumble, faff, faff about, faff around, fanny about, fanny around, fart about, fart around, fiddle about, fiddle around, fool about, fool around, forslow, goof around, goof off, hang about, hang out, horse around, idle, jerk off, lamp, laze, laze about, laze around, lepak, loaf about, loaf around, loiter, lollop, mess around, muck about, muck around, piddle, pingle, stand by, tool around, waste time, while
Scrabble Score: 6
loiter: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Wordloiter: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
loiter: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary