[f. LOFT sb.]
† 1. trans. To insert a layer of planks in (a building) so as to separate the lofts or stories; to ceil or floor. Also, to furnish with a loft or upper story. Obs.
1563. Stanford Chwardens’ Acc., in Antiquary, XVII. 169/1. For Loftyng the Toure & laying the plankes beneyth.
1598. Stow, Surv., xxx. (1603), 277. It is now lofted through, and made a store house for clothes.
a. 1615. Brieue Cron. Erlis Ross (1850), 20. He caused to joist and loft the chamber.
1634–5. Brereton, Trav. (Chetham Soc.), 43. The largest … coy-house I have seen, lofted overhead to lay corn.
1646. Virginia Stat. (1823), I. 337. That they [houses] be lofted with sawne boardes and made with convenient partitions.
transf. 1601. Bp. W. Barlow, Eagle & Body (1609), B ij b. See how many Eagles haue lofted their Ayries … with the gobbets and morsels pluckt and carried from those Bodies.
† 2. To store (goods or produce) in a loft. Obs.
1518. Waterf. Arch., in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. V. 326. No freman … shall house, loft, nor seller ony straunge marchant goods.
1785. Washington, Notes, Writings 1891, XII. 229. The remainder of the Crop which was measured and lofted must be accted. for by the Overseer.
3. Golf. To hit (a ball) into the air or strike it so as to lift it over an obstacle. Also, to hit the ball over (an obstacle).
1857. H. B. Farnie, Golfer’s Manual, in Golfiana Misc. (1887), 173. The player should practise lofting his ball directly into the hole.
1881. Forgan, Golfer’s Handbk., 30. You may boldly take your Light Iron and try to ‘loft’ your ball over the other, and so drop or roll into the hole.
1887. Sir W. G. Simpson, Golf, 138. If there is a high face to loft. Ibid., 151. If taken … too clean, it [the lofted iron] will skim it a hundred yards with the force that would have lofted it fifty.
absol. 1887. Blackw. Mag., Nov., 697.
| You may loft in the sand and be little the worse, | |
| For your third may be up on the green, | |
| And then if you lay your long putt dead, | |
| The result will remain to be seen, to be seen. |
1890. Hutchinson, Golf (Badm. Libr.), 243. He takes the light iron into his hand … to loft over … that sluggish little burn.
4. To keep (pigeons) in a ‘loft’ or flock.
1898. Westm. Gaz., 25 Oct., 5/1. They [pigeons] could be ‘lofted’ in Whitehall or in Pall-mall.
Hence Lofter Golf, a lofting-iron.
1892. Pall Mall Gaz., 15 March, 3/1. A ridge of snow … necessitated in many cases the use of a ‘lofter’ instead of the regulation ‘putter.’
