LOITER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does loiter mean? 

• LOITER (verb)
  The verb LOITER has 1 sense:

1. be about

  Familiarity information: LOITER used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LOITER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they loiter    ... he / she / it loiters   
Past simple: loitered   
Past participle: loitered   
-ing form: loitering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be about

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

footle; hang around; lallygag; linger; loaf; loiter; lollygag; lounge; lurk; mess about; mill about; mill around; tarry

Context example:

Who is this man that is hanging around the department?

Hypernyms (to "loiter" is one way to...):

be (have the quality of being; (copula, used with an adjective or a predicate noun))

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "loiter"):

lurch; prowl (loiter about, with no apparent aim)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

loiterer (someone who lingers aimlessly in or about a place)

 Context examples 

We loitered the morning away in the garden.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

No, no, we should have him loitering here always.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I arrived at the office so soon, after all, that I had half an hour's loitering about the Commons, before old Tiffey, who was always first, appeared with his key.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Catherine had not loitered; she was almost dressed, and her packing almost finished.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Did you ask her whether in leaving she met any one or saw any one loitering about Charles Street?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I had observed Henderson and Smoke loitering about the deck all morning, and I now learned why they were there.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Yes, he had followed me in my travels; he had loitered in forests, hid himself in caves, or taken refuge in wide and desert heaths; and he now came to mark my progress and claim the fulfilment of my promise.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

After attending Louisa through her business, and loitering about a little longer, they returned to the inn; and Anne, in passing afterwards quickly from her own chamber to their dining-room, had nearly run against the very same gentleman, as he came out of an adjoining apartment.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The dry-goods stores were not down among the counting-houses, banks, and wholesale warerooms, where gentlemen most do congregate, but Jo found herself in that part of the city before she did a single errand, loitering along as if waiting for someone, examining engineering instruments in one window and samples of wool in another, with most unfeminine interest, tumbling over barrels, being half-smothered by descending bales, and hustled unceremoniously by busy men who looked as if they wondered 'how the deuce she got there'.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

But if it be your wish to loll and loiter in these glades, bartering glory and renown for vile gold and ill-gotten riches, then ye must find another leader; for I have lived in honor, and in honor I trust that I shall die.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)