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loof

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loof¹

Rhymes with -uːf

Where it comes from

Inherited from Middle English love, lufe, lofe, luf (“palm of the hand”), from Old Norse lófi, from Proto-Germanic *lōfô (“palm of the hand; paw; oar blade, paddle”).

noun loofs

  1. Northern England, Scotland, dialectal The palm of the hand.
  2. Northern England, Scotland, dialectal The hand, especially, the hand outspread and upturned.

loof²

Rhymes with -uːf

Where it comes from

Inherited from Middle English lof (“a contrivance for altering a ship's course, paddle, oar”), from Middle Dutch loef (“an oar or paddle used in steering”), ultimately of the same origin as Etymology 1. Compare luff.

noun loofs

  1. obsolete A contrivance (apparently a paddle or an oar) used for altering the course of a ship.
  2. The after part of the bow of a ship where the sides begin to curve.

loof³

Rhymes with -uːf

Where it comes from

From Egyptian Arabic لُوف (lūf).

noun

  1. uncountable The spongy fibers of the fruit of a cucurbitaceous plant (Luffa aegyptiaca).

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MLA

"loof." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/loof. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

loof. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/loof

Chicago

"loof." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/loof.

BibTeX
@misc{loof_2026,
  title = {loof},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/loof},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}