loiter
/ˈlɔɪtɚ/
Word Rarity
Very rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.38 in modern English
6
Scrabble Score
6
Letters
2
Syllables
6
Unique Chars
Meaning
Example Sentences
- "For some reason, they discourage loitering outside the store, but encourage it inside."
- "With weary steps I loiter on, Tho’ always under alter’d skies The purple from the distance dies, My prospect and horizon gone."
- "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."
- "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."
- "[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."
- "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."
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 lottern (“live a slovenly life”). More at lout, little.
Origin
Word Breakdown
- Root: loitren, loteren, *lūtaną
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈlɔɪtɚ/
- British English: /ˈlɔɪtə(ɹ)/