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• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ləʊf/

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• (General American) IPA^(key): /loʊf/
• Rhymes: -əʊf

• From Middle English laf, lof, loof, from Old English hlāf (“bread; loaf”), from Proto-West Germanic *hlaib, from Proto-Germanic *hlaibaz (“bread; loaf”), of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to Old English hlifian (“to stand out prominently, tower up”).

loaf (plural loaves)

1. (also loaf of bread) A block of bread after baking.
   • 1913, Joseph C[rosby] Lincoln, chapter VIII, in Mr. Pratt’s Patients, New York, N.Y.; London: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC:

     Philander went into the next room[…]and came back with a salt mackerel that dripped brine like a rainstorm. Then he put the coffee pot on the stove and rummaged out a loaf of dry bread and some hardtack.

2. Any solid block of food, such as meat or sugar.
   • 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “IV. Century.”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries.[…], London: […] William Rawley[…]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee[…], →OCLC:

     sugar-loaf

3. (Cockney rhyming slang) Ellipsis of loaf of bread: the brain or the head.^[1]

   Synonyms: (slang) bonce, noddle, nut; see also Thesaurus:head

   use one's loaf

   • 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, “VIII AND XII”, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:

     It is frequently said of Bertram Wooster that he is a man who can think on his feet, and if the necessity arises he can also use his loaf when on all fours. [...] “Why didn't the idiot tell her not to open it?” “It was his first move. ‘I've found a letter from you here, precious,’ she said. ‘On no account open it, angel,’ he said. So of course she opened it.” She pursed the lips, nodded the loaf, and ate a moody piece of crumpet. “So that's why he's been going about looking like a dead fish.”

4. A solid block of soap, from which standard bar soap is cut.
5. (cellular automata) A particular still life configuration with seven living cells.
   • 1989 November 20, Dean Hickerson, “Life: glider gun origin”, in ‎^[1] (Usenet):

     It runs for 17331 generations before stabilizing as 136 blinkers, 109 blocks, 65 beehives, 18 loaves, 18 boats, 7 ships, 4 tubs, 3 ponds, 2 toads, and 40 gliders.

   • 1992 September 10, David Bell, “Spaceships in Conway's Life (Part 3b)”, in ‎^[2] (Usenet):

     Running a LWSS into it can produce various debris. One of these reactions produces a loaf. When the loaf is properly hit with other LWSSs, it can be pulled backwards.

   • 1998 January 27, Ian Osgood, “Life: looking for smallest ancestor of a quad-loaf”, in ‎^[3] (Usenet):

     I am looking for the smallest ancestor of the following four loaf pattern in Conway's Game of Life:

6. (informal, slang) A catloaf.

• (soap) Miller, J.L. "Customers believe in downstate Soap Fairy", The News Journal, B10, January 10, 2006.

loaf (third-person singular simple present loafs, present participle loafing, simple past and past participle loafed)

1. (Cockney rhyming slang) To headbutt

Probably a back-formation from loafer.

loaf (third-person singular simple present loafs, present participle loafing, simple past and past participle loafed)

1. (intransitive) To do nothing, to be idle.

   loaf about, loaf around

   • 2015, Elizabeth Royte, Vultures Are Revolting. Here’s Why We Need to Save Them., National Geographic (December 2015)[4]

     They don’t (often) kill other animals, they probably form monogamous pairs, and we know they share parental care of chicks, and loaf and bathe in large, congenial groups.

• idle, laze, lounge

• → Norwegian Nynorsk: loffe
• → Swedish: luffa

• AFOL, Olaf, foal

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