• (RP) IPA: /ləʊf/
• (America) IPA: /loʊf/

• From Middle English lof, laf, from Old English hlāf, from Proto-West Germanic *hlaib, from Proto-Germanic *hlaibaz, of uncertain origin.
• (brain or head) Rhyming slang, shortened from "loaf of bread".

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) The brain or the head (mainly in the phrase 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.

• (head, all slang) bonce, noddle, nut

• French: baguette, miche, pain
• German: Laib, Laib Brot, Brot
• Italian: pagnotta, pan carrè, pane in cassetta
• Portuguese: pão
• Russian: буха́нка
• Spanish: pan, hogaza

• Spanish: pan

• Italian: capoccia
• Russian: коча́н
• Spanish: mollera, testa (slang)

• French: savonnette
• Italian: panetto
• Portuguese: barra
• Spanish: barra

loaf (loafs, present participle loafing; simple past and past participle loafed)

1. (Cockney rhyming slang) To headbutt
2. (Internet slang) To assume or be in catloaf position (for cats or other animals)

Probably a back-formation from loafer.

loaf (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)[https://web.archive.org/web/20151213095110/http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2016/01/vultures-text]

     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

• French: paresser
• German: nichts tun, herumlungern, rumhängen (colloquial)
• Italian: oziare, bighellare, girovagare, vagabondare, trastullarsi
• Portuguese: vadiar
• Russian: бездельничать
• Spanish: holgazanear, estar a la bartola, golfear