slang. ? U.S. [f. LOAF v.2] The action of loafing.
1855. Whitman, Leaves of Grass (1884), 39. The farmer stops by the bars as he walks on a First-day loafe and looks at the oats and rye.
1886. American, XII. 76. A resolution I have made to enjoy a solid old-fashioned loaf this summer.
1897. Outing (U.S.), XXX. 374/2. The holiday camp, in which a restful loaf is the principal object.
1900. Daily News, 21 April, 3/1. In those days a Sandhurst instructorship was … looked upon as a ‘comfortable loaf.’
b. Comb.: loaf-day, a day when no regular work is done. [But cf. Sw. lofdag, Du. verlofdag leave-day, holiday.]
1881. W. H. Bishop, in Scribner’s Mag., XXII. 217/2. On ‘loaf-days,’ the hands occupy themselves with making the neat cans which it is their ordinary business to fill.
