Forms: 4 (? loltre or loitre), lotere, 5 loytron, 6 loyeter, loytre, lowtre, lewtre, leut(e)re, 6–8 loyter, 6– loiter. [a. MDu. loteren to wag about (like a loose tooth), Du. leuteren to shake, totter, Naut. (of a sail) to ‘shiver’; also, to dawdle, loiter over one’s work; cf. WFlem. lutteren, EFris. löteren, of similar meaning. For the development of sense cf. the fig. uses of loose, unsteady. The sense that the word has in Eng. has not been found in Du. earlier than the 16th c., but may be much older in slang use; the word was prob. introduced into England by foreign ‘loiterers’ or vagrants. The same root is found in MDu. lutsen to wag about.
The diphthong in the first syll. is a substitution for the unfamiliar vowel of the Du. word, which was prob. ō (as in mod. pronunciation) or nearly so.
In the first quot. below, the form loltrande may be genuine; if so it represents a distinct word, f. the root of LOLL v.]
1. intr. In early use: To idle, waste one’s time in idleness. Now only with more specific meaning: To linger indolently on the way when sent on an errand or when making a journey; to linger idly about a place; to waste time when engaged in some particular task, to dawdle.
13[?]. E. E. Allit. P., C. 458. Þenne was þe gome so glad of his gay logge, Lys loltrande [Morris conjectures loitrande] þer-inne, lokande to toune.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 311/1. Loytron, or byn ydyl, ocior.
1482. Trevisa’s Higden (Caxton), II. v. 77. He slough caym that loyterd [Trevisa: loted] amonge the busshes.
1530. Palsgr., 613/1. He loytreth aboute lyke a maysterlesse hounde. Ibid., 613/2. And you sende hym, he wyll sure loyter somewhere by the waye.
1540. Hye way to Spyttel Ho., 143, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 29. Lowtryng, and wandryng fro place to place.
1553. Primer, in Liturgies, etc. Edw. VI. (Parker Soc.), 472. Laboured nothing at all, but went abroad loitering idly.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., II. i. 198. Sir John, you loyter heere too long.
1621. Burton, Anat. Mel., II. ii. IV. (1651), 277. Some of them do nought but loyter all the week long.
1660. Wood, Life, Dec. (O. H. S.), I. 359. People might loyter about the streets in sermon time.
1697. Dryden, Æneid, II. 745. A Javelin threw, Which flutt’ring seemed to loiter as it flew.
1726. Leoni, Alberti’s Archit., I. 85. Nobody may loyter about in order to attempt it without instant suspicion.
1758. Johnson, Idler, No. 28, ¶ 4. That I loiter in the shop with my needle-work in my hand.
1814. Scott, Wav., xxxix. Officers … loitered in the hall, as if waiting for orders.
1855. Tennyson, Brook, 181. I linger by my shingly bars; I loiter round my cresses.
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., III. 8. These weak old men who loitered about.
1886. Pall Mall Gaz., 18 June, 3/2. Cabmen have had to pay … fines … for ‘loitering and obstructing’ the roads…. To loiter, in cabman’s English, means to ply for hire.
b. To travel or proceed indolently and with frequent pauses. With advs. or adverbial phrases.
1728. Pope, Dunc., I. 228. Prose swell’d to verse, Verse loitring into prose.
1789. Mrs. Piozzi, Journ. France, I. 1. We have lingered and loitered … from port to port.
1827–35. Willis, Florence Gray, 32. I loiter’d up the valley to a small and humbler ruin.
1850. Tennyson, In Mem., xxxviii. With weary steps I loiter on.
1853. Kane, Grinnell Exp., xlviii. (1856), 445. From the 13th of July to the 13th of August we loitered along.
1860. Holland, Miss Gilbert, iv. 51. He loitered thoughtfully along the uneven highway.
1863. Hawthorne, Our Old Home (1879), 115. The Avon loiters past the churchyard.
2. trans. † a. To neglect (one’s work). Obs. b. To allow (time, etc.) to pass idly; to waste carelessly or upon trifles. Obs. exc. with away; occas. with † out. † c. To postpone getting or giving (something). Obs.
c. 1540. Hye Way to Spyttel Ho., 871, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 62. But lye in bed,… Lewtryng theyr worke tyll it pas noone.
1549. Coverdale, etc., Erasm. Par. Eph., Prol. ¶ ij. Be not of the nombre of those men, whiche … loyter the tyme … and do no good at all.
1550. Crowley, Last Trump., 547. When thou art determined what knowledg thou wilt most apply, then let it not be loytered, but seke to get it spedily.
1589. Warner, Alb. Eng., V. xxv. 111. To loyter well deserued gifts is not to giue but sell.
1680. Otway, Orphan, II. i. (1691), 12. Not loyter out my life at home.
1689. Sherlock, Death, iii. § 7 (1731), 210. These Men have loitered away the Day.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. v. 173. It would have been extreme imprudence … to have loitered away so much time.
Mod. We loitered away the rest of the day.
3. Comb.: † loiter-sack, a lazy, lumpish fellow.
1594. Lyly, Moth. Bomb., II. ii. If the loiter-sacke bee gone springing into a taverne, I’le fetch him reeling out.
