loft

From Middle English lofte (“air, sky, upper region, loft”), from Old English loft, (doublet of native Old English lyft) of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse lopt (“upper chamber, attic, region of sky, air”), from Proto-Germanic *luftuz (“air, sky”).

Akin to Scots lift (“air; sky; firmament”), Dutch lucht (“air”), German Luft (“air”), Old English lyft (“air”). Doublet of lift and luft. Related to aloft.

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lɒft/, enPR: lŏft

  • Audio (Southern England):

    (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /lɔft/, enPR: lôft
• (cot–caught merger) IPA^(key): /lɑft/, enPR: lŏft

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒft

loft (countable and uncountable, plural lofts)

1. (obsolete, except in derivatives) air, the air; the sky, the heavens.
2. An attic or similar space (often used for storage) in the roof of a house or other building.
   1. Such an attic used as an atelier.

      an artist's loft

3. (textiles, countable, uncountable) The thickness of a soft object when not under pressure.

   maximum loft

4. A gallery or raised apartment in a church, hall, etc.

   an organ loft

5. (chiefly US) A residential flat (apartment) on an upper floor of an apartment building.

   a Manhattan loft

   • 1989 July 1, Jan Herman, “Sitcom face of Harry Groener also familiar on stage”, in Los Angeles Times‎^[1], Entertainment and Arts:

     Today, with a loft in Manhattan and a condo in Century City, they are the epitome of the bi-coastal couple.

6. Ellipsis of pigeon loft.
   • 1954 April, “The Why and the Wherefore”, in Railway Magazine, page 292, photo caption:

     Releasing some of the 12,000 racing pigeons that had arrived by special train (in foreground) at Dumfries Station for a race to their home lofts in Lanarkshire and West Lothian

7. (golf) The pitch or slope of the face of a golf club (tending to drive the ball upward).
8. (cricket) A lofted drive.
9. (obsolete) A floor or room placed above another.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 10:9:

     Eutychus […] fell down from the third loft.

• lift (noun)

loft (third-person singular simple present lofts, present participle lofting, simple past and past participle lofted)

1. (transitive) To propel high into the air.
   • 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport‎^[2]:

     Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.

2. (intransitive) To fly or travel through the air, as though propelled
   • 2004, Wallace Akin, The Forgotten Storm:

     When she saw houses lofting past her window, she ran to the child, who slept on a feather bed and she gathered the coverlet around them both.

3. (bowling) To throw the ball erroneously through the air instead of releasing it on the lane's surface.
4. (transitive) To furnish with a loft space.
   • 1853, Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command, (Please provide the book title or journal name):

     Two sisters, one under fifteen years of age, have lofted the house, so as to have a room for themselves.

5. (transitive) To raise (a bed) on tall supports so that the space beneath can be used for something else.
   • 2010, Casey Lewis, Knack Dorm Living, page 15:

     Lofting a bed is much harder work than it seems, and pulling a nail out with the back of a hammer is much simpler than using your own nails.

loft (comparative more loft, superlative most loft)

1. (obsolete, rare) lofty; proud; haughty
   • 1542, Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Epitath on Sir Thomas Wyatt the Elder:

     A heart, where dread was never so imprest
     To hide the thought that might the truth advance;
     In neither fortune loft, nor yet represt

• FLOT

From Old Norse lopt (“attic, air”). Cognate to luft (“air”).

• IPA^(key): [ˈlʌfd]

loft n (singular definite loftet, plural indefinite lofter)

1. attic, room immediately below the roof of a building
2. ceiling, structure separating stories in a building
3. (by extension) an upper limit to something

From Old Norse lopt.

• IPA^(key): /lɔft/
• Rhymes: -ɔft

loft n (genitive singular lofts, nominative plural loft)

1. air

   Synonym: andrúmsloft

2. sky

   Synonym: himinn

3. loft, attic

   Synonym: háaloft

4. ceiling

From Old Norse lopt.

loft n (definite singular loftet, indefinite plural loft, definite plural lofta or loftene)

1. a loft or attic
2. the ceiling of a room
3. a two-storey medieval building

• “loft” in The Bokmål Dictionary.
• “loft” in Det Norske Akademis ordbok (NAOB).

From Old Norse lopt.

loft n (definite singular loftet, indefinite plural loft, definite plural lofta)

1. a loft or attic
2. a two-storey building made in medieval times or in a similar style

• “loft” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

loft f

1. alternative form of lyft (“air”)

Borrowed from English loft. Doublet of lift and luft.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlɔft/

• Audio:

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɔft
• Syllabification: loft

loft m inan

1. loft apartment

• loft in Polish dictionaries at PWN

loft m (plural lofts)

1. loft

loft n

1. a loft (attic or similar space directly beneath the roof of a building)

   Synonym: vindsutrymme

2. (archaic) the upper floor (upstairs) of a two-story house

   Synonym: övervåning

• ha tomtar på loftet (“to be crazy”)

• vind (“attic”)

• loft in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• loft in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• loft in Svenska Akademiens ordbok (SAOB)

From Old Frisian luft.

loft c (plural loften)

1. sky
2. group of clouds

• “loft”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011