different between loiter vs loiterer

English

Etymology

From Middle English loitren, from Middle Dutch loteren (“to shake, wag, wobble”), ultimately connected with a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic *l?tan? (“to bend, stoop, cower, shrink from, decline”), see lout. Cognate with Dutch leuteren (“to dawdle”), Alemannic German lottern (“to wobble”), German Lotterbube (“rascal”). More at lout, little.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /?l??t?(?)/
• (US) IPA^(key): /?l??t?/, [?l?j??]
• Rhymes: -??t?(r)

Verb

loiter (third-person singular simple present loiters, present participle loitering, simple past and past participle loitered)

1. To stand about without any aim or purpose; to stand about idly.

   Synonyms: (Malaysia, Singapore) lepak, linger, hang around

2. To remain at a certain place instead of moving on.
3. (military, aviation) For an aircraft to remain in the air near a target.

Derived terms

• loiter time

Translations

Noun

loiter (plural loiters)

1. A standing or strolling about without any aim or purpose.
   • 1865, Edward Spooner, Parson and People (page 125)

     Oh, Sir, we just got up in the morning and had a loiter and a pipe on the green; then we got our breakfasts; […]

Anagrams

• Loiret, Lortie, toiler, triole

English

Etymology

loiter +? -er

Noun

loiterer (plural loiterers)

1. One who loiters, one who lingers or hangs around.
   • Episode 16

     Though unusual in the Dublin area he knew that it was not by any means unknown for desperadoes who had next to nothing to live on to be abroad waylaying and generally terrorising peaceable pedestrians by placing a pistol at their head in some secluded spot outside the city proper, famished loiterers of the Thames embankment category they might be hanging about there or simply marauders ready to decamp with whatever boodle they could in one fell swoop at a moment's notice, your money or your life, leaving you there to point a moral, gagged and garrotted.

Translations