Loaf
nounA shaped mass of bread baked as a single piece and usually sliced.
How to spell loaf
4 letters · 1 syllable
How to pronounce loaf
What does loaf mean?
- nounA shaped mass of bread baked as a single piece and usually sliced.
- verbTo spend time lazily, doing little or nothing useful.
Loaf in a sentence
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noun
She bought a fresh loaf from the bakery on her way home.
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verb
He would rather loaf around the house all weekend than tidy the garden.
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noun
The recipe makes one large loaf that keeps well for days.
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verb
There is too much work to do today to loaf at the desk.
Where does loaf come from?
Language of origin: Germanic
This word descends from the Old English hlaf, which meant 'bread' in general rather than just a single shaped piece. The same root appears in some surprising places: 'lord' comes from hlaford, literally the 'loaf-keeper' or bread-guardian of a household, and 'lady' from hlaefdige, the 'loaf-kneader'. Related forms turn up across the Germanic languages, including the German Laib, showing how old and widespread the term is. Over centuries the meaning narrowed in English from bread in general to a single baked mass shaped and cut into slices. The later verb sense, meaning to lounge about idly, appeared in American English in the nineteenth century and is probably an unrelated borrowing or back-formation, possibly from the German Landläufer 'tramp'. The spelling keeps the silent 'oa' vowel pair, with the plural shifting to 'loaves' just as 'leaf' becomes 'leaves'.
How the word is built
- loaf (from Old English hlaf: bread)
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