noun
Meaning 1
An idle person.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Standard Lemma guide
loafer
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
Pronunciation
Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
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Received-Pronunciation: /ˈləʊfə/
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Southern-England: Recorded audio is listed in the source snapshot.
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General-American: /ˈloʊfɚ/
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rhymes with -əʊfə(ɹ)
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CMU ARPABET: L OW1 F ER0 Digits mark lexical stress: 1 primary, 2 secondary, 0 unstressed.
noun
Meaning 2
A shoe with no laces, resembling a moccasin.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 3
A particular orthogonal spaceship in Conway's Game of Life that moves at a speed of c/7, and the smallest such example.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: cellular-automata, computing, engineering, mathematics, natural-sciences, physical-sciences, sciences
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 4
A wolf, especially a grey or timber wolf.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: Southwestern, US, dialectal
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
Meaning 5
To loaf around; to be idle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: dialectal, intransitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
noun
Meaning 6
a low leather step-in shoe; the top resembles a moccasin but it has a broad flat heel
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: shoe
noun
Meaning 7
person who does no work
Definition source: Princeton WordNet 3.0
Examples
- a lazy bum
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: idler, do-nothing, layabout, bum
Antonyms: none provided
Broader terms: nonworker
Narrower terms: clock watcher, couch potato, dallier, dillydallier, dilly-dallier, mope, lounger, dawdler, drone, laggard, lagger, trailer, poke, daydreamer, woolgatherer, goldbrick, goof-off, ne'er-do-well, good-for-nothing, no-account, good-for-naught, lazybones, lie-abed, slugabed, loon, slacker, shirker, sluggard, slug, spiv, sunbather, trifler, whittler
History
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).
Named due to having a loaf in several of its stages.
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.
Across languages
Translations
85 source translations are retained for this English entry.
- Bulgarian: безделник (bezdelnik) — idle person
- Catalan: gandul — idle person
- Catalan: gallof — idle person
- Dutch: nietsnut — idle person
- Dutch: leegloper — idle person
- Dutch: luilak — idle person
- Finnish: tyhjäntoimittaja — idle person
- French: oisif — idle person
- French: fainéant — idle person
- French: paresseux — idle person
- Galician: lacazán — idle person
- Galician: preguizán — idle person
- Galician: nugallán — idle person
- Galician: galloufeiro — idle person
- Galician: guillote — idle person
- Galician: arlote — idle person
- Galician: pantrigueiro — idle person
- Galician: vacaceiro — idle person
- Galician: palanquin — idle person
- Galician: palafustrán — idle person
- Galician: calaceiro — idle person
- German: Faulpelz — idle person
- German: Faulenzer — idle person
- German: Bummler — idle person
- German: Bummelant — idle person
- German: Gammler — idle person
- Greek: τεμπέλης (tempélis) — idle person
- Hungarian: léhűtő — idle person
- Hungarian: semmittevő — idle person
- Hungarian: naplopó — idle person
- Irish: liúdramán — idle person
- Irish: liairne — idle person
- Irish: scraiste — idle person
- Italian: fannullone — idle person
- Italian: perditempo — idle person
- Italian: perdigiorno — idle person
- Japanese: 怠け者 (namakemono) — idle person
- Latin: cessātor — idle person
- Macedonian: бе́зделник (bézdelnik) — idle person
- Macedonian: безде́лница (bezdélnica) — idle person
- Māori: kaihau — idle person
- Māori: parakūkā — idle person
- Māori: kaitahaumu — idle person
- Māori: inukorokoro — idle person
- Māori: kaikora — idle person
- Māori: karioi — idle person
- Occitan: estaire — idle person
- Occitan: pigre — idle person
- Polish: leń — idle person
- Polish: arcyleń — idle person
- Portuguese: folgado — idle person
- Portuguese: vadio — idle person
- Punjabi: ਲਫੰਗਾ (laphaṅgā) — idle person
- Russian: безде́льник (bezdélʹnik) — idle person
- Russian: безде́льница (bezdélʹnica) — idle person
- Russian: ло́дырь (lódyrʹ) — idle person
- Russian: лоботря́с (lobotrjás) — idle person
- Russian: лоботря́ска (lobotrjáska) — idle person
- Russian: лентя́й (lentjáj) — idle person
- Russian: лентя́йка (lentjájka) — idle person
- Russian: лежебо́ка (ležebóka) — idle person
- Spanish: haragán — idle person
- Spanish: gandul — idle person
- Spanish: holgazán — idle person
- Spanish: comodón — idle person
- Swahili: lofa — idle person
- Welsh: diogyn — idle person
- Welsh: stelciwr — idle person
- Bulgarian: лоуфър (loufǎr) — footwear
- Chinese Cantonese: 懶佬鞋 /懒佬鞋 (laan5 lou2 haai4) — footwear
- Finnish: louferi — footwear
- French: mocassin — footwear
- Galician: mocasín — footwear
- German: Loafer — footwear
- German: Slipper — footwear
- German: Schlüpfschuh — footwear
- German: Trotteur — footwear
- Indonesian: pantofel — footwear
- Irish: lófaire — footwear
- Italian: mocassino — footwear
- Japanese: ローファー (rōfā) — footwear
- Navajo: kébiiʼníʼdíʼisí — footwear
- Polish: loafersy — footwear
- Portuguese: sapatilha — footwear
- Spanish: mocasín — footwear