as in lingered
to move or act slowly
don't loiter in this neighborhood after dark
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Recent Examples of loitered
At the start of that brief official visit, his first, five military-grade drones loitered dangerously near Dublin Airport’s busiest civilian flight paths unopposed.
—
Paul Iddon, Forbes.com, 30 Dec. 2025
The hotel is a short walk from the Jericho Tavern, where Radiohead played its first gig, in 1986, and around the corner from a now shuttered HMV, in whose aisles Donwood and Yorke once loitered, scouting the competition.
—Zoe Si, New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2025
The drones also loitered above an Irish Navy vessel that had secretly deployed for Zelensky's visit.
—Peter Aitken, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Dec. 2025
There, the crop continued to grow while white-faced ibis and killdeer birds loitered around the water.
—Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 4 Sep. 2025
Paul Iddon, Forbes.com, 30 Dec. 2025
The hotel is a short walk from the Jericho Tavern, where Radiohead played its first gig, in 1986, and around the corner from a now shuttered HMV, in whose aisles Donwood and Yorke once loitered, scouting the competition.
—Zoe Si, New Yorker, 19 Dec. 2025
The drones also loitered above an Irish Navy vessel that had secretly deployed for Zelensky's visit.
—Peter Aitken, MSNBC Newsweek, 4 Dec. 2025
There, the crop continued to grow while white-faced ibis and killdeer birds loitered around the water.
—Jake Goodrick, Sacbee.com, 4 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for loitered
Verb
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Back in the Mexico City bar, as the game resumed and fans turned their attention back to the field, the excitement lingered.—
Martin Silva Rey,
Fortune,
10 Feb. 2026
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The emotions of Sunday's downhill race lingered over Tuesday's competition.—
Becky Sullivan,
NPR,
10 Feb. 2026
Verb
-
Votes in the House were delayed from Tuesday afternoon to the evening as leadership sought to convince nearly half a dozen GOP holdouts to vote for the measure.—
Rachel Schilke,
The Washington Examiner,
11 Feb. 2026
-
So with official jobs data due out on Wednesday, delayed by several days because of the brief partial government shutdown, analysts say stocks could go even lower on bad news — or even on news that looks too good.—
John Towfighi,
CNN Money,
11 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The beat stood out in part because expectations had been so low after a stalling labor market grew more dire as the year dragged on.—
Eva Roytburg,
Fortune,
11 Feb. 2026
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During her arrest in December, security forces beat the activist repeatedly and dragged her by the hair, tearing sections of her scalp, and continued to beat her in the transport vehicle, the Nobel Committee said in a statement issued earlier Wednesday.—
Jomana Karadsheh,
CNN Money,
11 Feb. 2026
Verb
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One live roach crawled on the floor in front of a storage rack with seasoning and cans.—
David J. Neal,
Miami Herald,
6 Feb. 2026
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Maybe the girl had crawled under a neighbor's trailer while playing hide-and-seek.—
Kristine Phillips,
IndyStar,
5 Feb. 2026
Verb
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The sports journalist, who split from Kelce in 2022, joined forces with Tiffany Haddish, Ben Simmons, and Offset in a Sleeper commercial that poked fun at the aftermath of calling it quits in the spotlight.—
Lara Walsh,
InStyle,
10 Feb. 2026
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Altman and other senior executives took to social media to respond to swipes from Anthropic, which ran Super Bowl ads that poked fun at OpenAI's decision to run ads within ChatGPT.—
Ashley Capoot,Kate Rooney,
CNBC,
9 Feb. 2026
Verb
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Mike Dvorak returned to play the accordion and strolled the event premises while singing about the Cocoa Crawl.—
Karie Angell Luc,
Chicago Tribune,
10 Feb. 2026
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The College was also spotted in episodes 7 and 8 when members of the Ton strolled through the Grand Square and surrounding areas.—
Kayla Keegan,
PEOPLE,
1 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Loitered.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/loitered. Accessed 15 Feb. 2026.
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