Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The palm of the hand; also, the hand itself.
- n. A contrivance (apparently a paddle or an oar) for altering the course of a ship. See etymology.
- n. That part of a ship's bow where the sides begin to curve in toward the stem. See luff.
- The earlier spelling of luff.
- n. A Middle English form of loaf.
Wiktionary
- n. nautical, obsolete A contrivance (apparently a paddle or an oar) used for altering the course of a ship.
- n. nautical The after part of the bow of a ship where the sides begin to curve.
- n. anatomy, Northern England, Scotland The palm of the hand.
- n. anatomy, Northern England, Scotland The hand, especially, the hand outspread and upturned.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. (Bot.) The spongelike fibers of the fruit of a cucurbitaceous plant (Luffa Ægyptiaca); called also
vegetable sponge . - n. Formerly, some appurtenance of a vessel which was used in changing her course; -- probably a large paddle put over the lee bow to help bring her head nearer to the wind.
- n. The part of a ship's side where the planking begins to curve toward bow and stern.
- v. (Naut.) See luff.
Etymologies
- From Middle English lufe, lofe ("palm of the hand"), from Old English *lōfa, from Proto-Germanic *lōfô (“palm of the hand; paw; oar blade, paddle”), from Proto-Indo-European *lāp-, *lēp- (“to be flat”). Cognate with Scots luif ("the palm of the hand"), Swedish love ("wrist"), Icelandic lófi ("palm of the hand"), Gothic (lófa, "palm of the hand"), German dialectal Laffe ("flat hand, palm"). Related to glove. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“Is there a source for the variet (y/ies) of seeds of the very long loof ...”
Global Voices in English » Azerbaijan: Blogger response to University massacre
“SSFC says: lirpa loof: Where in the Constitution does it say that the President of the United States has the authority to hire a blogger?”
The Volokh Conspiracy » How Did the White House Pick Its Law Blogger?
“February 21, 2008 at 2:11 pm babtizm buy tung: moar thew-row than sprinkling, but wiffout teh dunking in water, that teh kittehs feer and loof.”
u haz an itty bitty flavur - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger?
“Really nice pictures and i like the new loof of the blog.”
““If Counsellor Crossmyloof used the dative for the nominative, I would have crossed his loof with a tight leathern strap, Mr. Saddletree; there is not a boy on the booby form but should have been scourged for such a solecism in grammar.””
“She wogged slightly over to her own son, with a woddied loof in her eye.”
“She wogged slightly over to her own son, with a woddied loof in her eye.”
“The chief robber was undoubtedly an officer, said M'Fadyen, and besides the large wart over his eye, there were other marks which made him noticeable -- for example, "the little finger of his left hand bowed towards his loof.”
“Conquest, and lying a-loof off, and laying a long Hazard sometimes for your Antagonist, will be an excellent way to entice and entrap him; for that he promising to himself the good fortune of Hazarding you, will be induced rashly to adventure at that distance, and supposing to strike your Ball, which cunningly lyes (to tempt him to that Venture) near the”
“There was never an outer door snecked since you left, Colin," said he, turning awkwardly away and looking hard into the loof of his hand like”
John Splendid The Tale of a Poor Gentleman, and the Little Wars of Lorn
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘loof’.
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Deprefixed words
A list of words you more frequently hear used with prefixes than without.
clement, witting, ravel, whelm, fettered, licit, couth, bridled, wieldy, kempt, ingenuous, iterate and 116 more...
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Just 'cause I like 'em, L
lisle, lahar, loupe, labret, latten, luster, lagomorph, lamentation, limicole, lunge, lobtail, latifolious and 182 more...
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Selected Terms from Falconer's New Un...
1815 edition; ed. William Burney (London: Chatham Publishing, 2006).
widows' men, ballatoon, boomkin, leefange, falconet, maculae, lepus, koff, pardo, periagua, dingass, saik and 238 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for loof.
bilby Nonchalant. Mar 22, 2009
fbharjo a-loof? Mar 22, 2009
chained_bear "The after part of a ship's bow; or that part of her side forward where the planks begin to be incurvated as they approach the stem: hence, the guns which lie here are called loof-pieces."
—Falconer's New Universal Dictionary of the Marine (1816), 245 Oct 14, 2008