to loaf about
1
6.5
- phrasal verb
- /loʊf əˈbaʊt/
- UK
:
holgazanear
- Instead of being productive, she was just loafing about and scrolling through social media all day.
Examples
-
After finishing his homework, he decided to loaf about the house instead of going out with his friends.
-
Is this the record of someone just loafing about and collecting a paycheck?
Blog text (18) -
Why should a sailor loaf about in Palos when he could find houses of gold and scarves of silk for his ladies?
-
They spent the entire weekend loafing about, watching movies and eating snacks.
Synonyms
888
1.5
Spend time without any activity
350
1.1
To spend time sitting and doing very little without a clear purpose
111
4.1
To spend time doing playful or unplanned activities
43
3.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
7
6.2
To spend time doing little or nothing instead of working
7
4.3
To spend time relaxing and doing very little
5
6.5
To spend time doing small, not important tasks slowly without a clear plan
5
3.8
To relax and do very little
3
7.9
Spend time doing very little or nothing
3
8.4
To spend time doing not important things in a relaxed way
2
9.9
To sit and do nothing instead of working
2
7.7
To spend time doing nothing useful
2
8.6
To spend time doing very little and moving around without plans
2
9.5
To waste time instead of doing the work you need
1
8.7
To waste time doing small unimportant things
1
9.2
To spend time doing small unimportant things instead of working
1
8.7
To spend time doing things that are not important
1
3.4
To spend time lazily doing little or nothing
1
7.7
To spend time doing nothing and not working
1
4.4
To spend time doing very little and relaxing
1
3.2
To spend time doing nothing
1
6.5
To move around slowly doing small jobs in no hurry
1
9.9
To waste time doing silly or lazy things instead of useful work
1
9.9
To waste time doing unimportant or silly things instead of doing something important
1
9.9
To waste time instead of doing something useful
1
9.9
To waste time instead of doing something useful
To spend time doing small unimportant things with no real plan
Spend time or money on unimportant things
To waste time doing small, unimportant things
To pass time by doing something not useful while you wait
To waste time instead of doing something useful
Antonyms
How Idle
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning 'to spend time doing nothing' is directly and transparently built from 'loaf' (to pass time lazily) combined with 'about' (around/in the area), yielding 'idle around'. This verb + particle composition follows a common, predictable pattern in English (and parallels in other languages), so a B1 learner who knows both constituents should be able to infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
Loaf about may come from the image of a loaf (a block of bread) that just sits still, so a person who does nothing was compared to that loaf. That's why loaf about means 'to spend time doing nothing'.