English Explanatory Dictionary

loafer

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. An idle person.
  2. A shoe with no laces, resembling a moccasin.
verb
  1. To loaf around; to be idle.
noun
  1. A particular orthogonal spaceship in Conway's Game of Life that moves at a speed of c/7, and the smallest such example.
noun
  1. A wolf, especially a grey or timber wolf.

Pronunciation

/ˈləʊfə/ LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-loafer.wav /ˈloʊfɚ/

Word forms

loafer loafers loafering loafered lobo lobo wolf lofer lover loper

Etymology

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).

Synonyms

penny loafer bum bumpkin footler idler lout yob yobbo

Derived words

loaferdom loaferish

Translations

Bulgarian: лоуфър Chinese Cantonese: 懶佬鞋 /懒佬鞋 Finnish: louferi French: mocassin Galician: mocasín German: Loafer German: Slipper German: Schlüpfschuh German: Trotteur Indonesian: pantofel Irish: lófaire Italian: mocassino Japanese: ローファー Navajo: kébiiʼníʼdíʼisí Polish: loafersy Portuguese: sapatilha Spanish: mocasín
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