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''aloof'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260125204041-00-⌔

aloof - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

Adverb

aloof (comparative more aloof, superlative most aloof)

  • At or from a distance, but within view, or at a small distance; apart; away.
    • ✤ Sisyphus also I saw, with unwelcomest taskage tormented,/Toilsomely hoisting aloof, unassisted, a ponderous round stone.1
    • ✤ The noise approaches, tho’our palace stood
      Aloof from streets, encompass’d with a wood      2
    • ✤ Mother […] considered that the exclusiveness of Peter’s circle was due not to its distinction, but to the fact that it was an inner Babylon of prodigality and whoredom, from which every Kensingtonian held aloof, except on the conventional tip-and-run excursions in pursuit of shopping, tea and theatres.3
  • Without sympathy; unfavorably.
    • ✤ But to open the Bible in this spirit — to take the Book as from the hand of God, and then to look at it aloof, and with caution, as if throughout it were illusory and enigmatical, is the worst of all impieties.4

Adjective

aloof (comparative more aloof, superlative most aloof)

  • Either physically or emotionally remote: distant, standoffish.
    • ✤ Synonyms: offish, remote, standoffish; see also Thesaurus: aloof
    • ✤ None may ever hear the speech of the poets of that city, to whom the gods have spoken. It stands a city aloof. There hath been no rumour of it—I alone have dreamed of it, and I may not be sure that my dreams are true.5

Preposition

aloof

  • (obsolete) Away from; clear of.6
    • ✤ Rivetus […] would fain work himself aloof these rocks and quicksands.7

Etymology

From Middle English loof (“weather gage, windward direction”), probably from Middle Dutch (Compare Dutch loef (“the weather side of a ship”)), originally a nautical order to keep the ship’s head to the wind, thus to stay clear of a lee-shore or some other quarter, hence the figurative sense of “at a distance, apart”.8

Pronunciation

  • IPA: /əˈluːf/
  • Audio (Southern England): 🔊
  • Rhymes: -uːf

Printed 2026-06-28.

(echo:: @ ⌗)

Footnotes

  1. 1829, William Taylor, Historic Survey of German Poetry, page 73: ↩

  2. 1697, John Dryden, “Part 13”, in Virgil’s Aeneid, Harvard Classics edition, translation of original by Virgil, published 2004, page 113: ↩

  3. 1921, Ben Travers, chapter 2, in A Cuckoo in the Nest, Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, Page & Company, published 1925, →OCLC: ↩

  4. 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday evening, page 363: ↩

  5. 1906, Lord Dunsany [i.e., Edward Plunkett, 18th Baron of Dunsany], Time and the Gods ‎, London: William Heineman, →OCLC, page 3: ↩

  6. “aloof”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC. ↩

  7. 1643, John Milton, Doctrine and Discipline of Divorce: ↩

  8. Douglas Harper (2001–2026), “aloof”, in Online Etymology Dictionary. ↩

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