Also 7 loundge, 8 Sc. lunge; and in derivatives 7 lundge, 8 lownge. [Of obscure origin; perh. suggested by LUNGIS.]
1. intr. To move indolently, resting between-whiles, or leaning on something for support. Also with about, away, in, out, up. (In the early instances perh. rather: To skulk, to slouch.)
1508. Dunbar, Flyting w. Kennedie, 174. Ay loungand, lyk ane loikman on ane ledder.
1639. J. Clarke, Parœmiologia, 259. He loundge’s as a dog that had lost his tayle.
1755. Ramsay, To Jas. Clerk, 3, Works 1877, II. 307. Whase owsen lunges o’er a plain Of wide extent.
1757. Smollett, Reprisal, I. i, While I go down to the cabin … you may lounge about and endeavour to over-hear their conversation.
1838. Lytton, Alice, 131. Vargrave lounged into the billiard-room.
1862. Mrs. H. Wood, Channings, xvii. Roland lounged in, not more presentable than the rest.
1863. Fr. A. Kemble, Resid. in Georgia, 26. Filthy negroes, who lounge in and out.
1874. Deutsch, Rem., 176. Egyptian officials, lounging about armed with weighty sticks.
1900. Blackw. Mag., Aug., 260/2. He would lounge up and say—‘Now come really.’
2. To recline lazily, to loll.
1746. Exmoor Scolding (E. D. S.), 42. Eart lunging, eart squatting upon thy tether Eend. Ibid. (1778), Gloss., Lounging or Lundging, leaning on any Thing, such as a Gate or a Stile, like a lazy Creature that hath nothing else to do.
1822–34. Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), III. 246. The complaint … shows itself by … an unwonted desire to lounge and loll about.
1827. Lytton, Pelham, I. xii. 39. You must not lounge on your chair.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, ii. The other stood lounging with his foot upon a chair.
1850. Maurice, Mor. & Met. Philos. (ed. 2), 162. Lounging upon their couches.
1859. C. C. Barker, Associat. Princ., iii. 63. ’Squires … lounging on the rushes before the great hall fire.
3. To pass time indolently or without definite occupation; to idle.
1671. Skinner, Etymol. Ling. Angl., Lounge, cunctari, movari, cessare, vide Lungis.
1755. Johnson, Lounge, to idle; to live lazily.
1784. J. Barry, in Lect. Paint., v. (Bohn, 1848), 197. It would be at least some amusement … to lounge over what the other artists had done.
1856. Ld. Cockburn, Mem. (1874), vii. 393. Scott … breakfasted and lounged from nine to eleven,.
4. trans. To pass (time, etc.) away (rarely out) with lounging; also, † to lounge in (a place) (obs.).
1776. Dk. Richmond, in Burke’s Corr. (1844), II. 113. I suppose you lounge away whole months whistling for want of thought.
1810. Splendid Follies, I. 129. I never go to the play for any entertainment, except kicking up a row and lounging the lobbies.
1814. Jane Austen, Mansf. Park (1851), 67. They all returned to the house together, there to lounge away the time as they could with chit-chat.
1871. E. F. Burr, Ad Fidem (ed. 2), iii. 39. The able-bodied and able-minded person who … lounges out his youth and lounges out his manhood.
1879. Froude, Cæsar, 104. He then returned to Rome to lounge away the remainder of his days in voluptuous magnificence.
