Other forms: loitering, loitered, loiters
To loiter is to stand about with no clear purpose. Loiter outside, no loitering, loitering with intent.
It is the purposelessness that gets it noticed, and no loitering signs make an offence of standing still. Loitering with intent was a real charge in English law and was much criticised before it was repealed. Note that the word came from a Dutch verb meaning to wobble or dawdle.
1verbloiterTo stand about with no clear purpose.
“Teenagers were told not to loiter outside the shop after dark.”
loiter is an idling.
Middle Dutch loteren meant to shake or wobble. The sense of dawdling followed.
Proto-Germanic
*lūtaną — to bend, stoop, cower, shrink from, decline
Middle Dutch
loteren
Middle English
loitren
English, today
loiter
From Middle English loitren, from Middle Dutch loteren "to shake, wag, wobble"; > modern Dutch leuteren (“to dawdle, ramble”), ultimately connected with a frequentative form of Proto-Germanic lūtaną (“to bend, stoop, cower, shrink from, decline”), see lout. Cognate with Dutch leuteren (“to dawdle”), gsw lottern (“to wobble”), German lottern (“live a slovenly life”). More at lout, little.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA