[f. LOITER v. + -ING2.] That loiters or idles; in early use, that leads a vagabond life.
a. 1533. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), L iv b. These lewtryng theues, whyche wyl not labour by daie.
1581. Nowell & Day, in Confer., I. (1584), F ij b. I haue bene … a loytering labourer in the Lords vineyarde.
1603. Knolles, Hist. Turks (1638), 210. A company of loitring companions.
1671. Clarendon, Dialogues, Tracts (1727), 346. There is no temper so much to be despised as a loitering lazy nature.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 491, ¶ 1. After an Hour spent in this loitering way of Reading.
1784. Cowper, Task, III. 832. Herds Of fluttering, loitering, cringing … vagrants.
1791–2. Wordsw., Descr. Sk., 89. The loitering traveller hence, at evening, sees From rock-hewn steps the sail between the trees.
1847. Emerson, Poems, Musketaquid. Loiter willing by yon loitering stream.
1865. J. H. Ingraham, Pillar of Fire (1872), 110. No loitering step was permitted by the overseers.
Hence Loiteringly adv., in a loitering manner; in early use, † like a vagabond. Loiteringness, the quality of being inclined to loiter.
1547. Act 1 Edw. VI., c. 3 § 1. The said parsone so living Idelye and loyteringlie.
a. 1617. Bayne, Lect. (1634), 136. Not looking that loyteringly it should be atchieved.
1836. New Monthly Mag., XLVI. 43. He … strolled loiteringly on.
1850. Lynch, Theo. Trin., vii. 135. Like a first violet of spring, Trembling downwards loiteringly.
1868. J. H. Stirling, in N. Brit. Rev., XLIX. 364. That inertia, that lingeringness and loiteringness, that are not unfrequent in Browning.
