loafer
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loafer¹
- /ˈləʊfə/ UK
- /ˈloʊfɚ/ US
Rhymes with -əʊfə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
Perhaps short for landloafer, possibly a partial translation of German Landläufer (compare dialectal German loofen (“to run”), and English landlouper); or more likely connected to Middle English love, loove, loffinge, looffinge (“a remnant, the rest, that which remains or lingers”), from Old English lāf (“remainder, residue, what is left”) (more at lave), which is akin to Scots lave (“the rest, remainder”), Old English lǣfan (“to let remain, leave behind”) (more at leave).
noun loafers
- An idle person. The garden was bounded by a three-foot brick wall with a fringe of wood rails upon the top, and against this wall was leaning a stalwart police constable, surrounded by a small knot of loafers, who craned their necks and strained their eyes in the vain hope of catching some glimpse of the proceeding
- A shoe with no laces, resembling a moccasin. Someone must explain to Sunak about the time bomb ticking beneath his £1,000 loafers.
Similar: penny loafer
verb loafers · loafering · loafered
- To loaf around; to be idle.
loafer²
- /ˈləʊfə/ UK
- /ˈloʊfɚ/ US
Rhymes with -əʊfə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
Named due to having a loaf in several of its stages.
noun loafers
- A particular orthogonal spaceship in Conway's Game of Life that moves at a speed of c/7, and the smallest such example.
loafer³
- /ˈləʊfə/ UK
- /ˈloʊfɚ/ US
Rhymes with -əʊfə(ɹ)
Where it comes from
Borrowed from Spanish lobo (“wolf”), reinterpreted as or conflated with loafer (“idler”); compare the alternative forms which reflect other re-interpretations and conflations. Doublet of lupus and wolf.
noun loafers · lobo · lobo wolf · lofer · lover · loper
- A wolf, especially a grey or timber wolf. The great menace to livestock, other than the continual battle with cold, [...] was the gray wolf. [...] The big loafers came in from everywhere.
Thesaurus
noun
Similar: penny loafer
Translations
Every language
noun footwear
| Español | mocasín |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | ローファー rōfā |
| Português | sapatilha |
| Français | mocassin |
| Deutsch | Loafer, Slipper, Schlüpfschuh, Trotteur |
| Italiano | mocassino |
noun idle person
| Español | haragán, gandul, holgazán, comodón |
|---|---|
| 日本語 | 怠け者 namakemono |
| Kiswahili | lofa |
| Português | folgado, vadio |
| Français | oisif, fainéant, paresseux |
| Deutsch | Faulpelz, Faulenzer, Bummler, Bummelant, Gammler |
| Italiano | fannullone, perditempo, perdigiorno |
| Ελληνικά | τεμπέλης tempélis |
| Русский | безде́льник bezdélʹnik, безде́льница bezdélʹnica, ло́дырь lódyrʹ, лоботря́с lobotrjás, лоботря́ска lobotrjáska, лентя́й lentjáj |
Talk about this word "loafer." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/loafer. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026. loafer. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/loafer "loafer." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/loafer.Cite this
@misc{loafer_2026,
title = {loafer},
howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
year = {2026},
url = {https://micwyn.com/word/loafer},
urldate = {2026-11-06}
}
