loiter

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And they loiter, and they linger ... "

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Definitions (8)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (3)

  1. intransitive verb To stand idly about; linger aimlessly.
  2. intransitive verb To proceed slowly or with many stops: loitered all the way home.
  3. intransitive verb To delay or dawdle: loiter over a task.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (3)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (1)

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This word has been looked up 111 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

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Used in the same contextWord Family

loiter:   loitering
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English loitren, probably from Middle Dutch loteren, to totter, be loose.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. from Middle English loitren, from Old Dutch D. leuteren, linger, loiter, trifle; cf. Old Dutch loteren, delay; Low German luderen = German dial. loddern, lottern, be sluggish; Anglo-Saxon loddere, a beggar, = Middle Low German lodder = Icelandic loddari, a worthless fellow; Anglo-Saxon lodrung, trifling, nonsense, = Old High German lotar, empty, idle, Middle High German loter, German lotter, in comp., loose, worthless, lotter-bube, a worthless fellow; perhaps ult. connected with lout.
 

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/ˈlɔɪtər/
by American Heritage

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