loafer

Meaning

1. An idle person.
2. A shoe with no laces, resembling a moccasin.

lazy person

good-for-nothing

ne’er-do-well

dead-beat

unemployed person

good-for-naught

lazy-bones

lazy fellow

free-loader

chair warmer

corner-man

dead-head

ne’er-do-weel

slow-coach

lazy boy girl

Frequency

Pronounced as (IPA)

/ˈləʊfə/

Cognate with Scots

lave

Cognate with Old English

lǣfan

In summary

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).

Bookmark this

Arrow pointing to the button

English

Start learning English with learnfeliz.

Practice speaking and memorizing "loafer" and many other words and sentences in English.

Go to our English course page

Notes

Sign in to write sticky notes