loft

From Middle English lofte (“air, sky, upper region, loft”), from Old English loft, (doublet of native Old English lyft) of North Germanic origin, from Old Norse lopt (“upper chamber, attic, region of sky, air”), from Proto-Germanic *luftuz (“air, sky”). Akin to Scots lift (“air; sky; firmament”), Dutch lucht (“air”), German Luft (“air”), Old English lyft (“air”). More at lift, aloft.

• (General American) IPA^(key): /lɔft/, enPR: lôft
• (cot–caught merger, Canada) IPA^(key): /lɑft/, enPR: lŏft
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /lɒft/, enPR: lŏft
• Rhymes: -ɒft

loft (plural lofts)

1. (obsolete, except in derivatives) air, the air; the sky, the heavens.
2. An attic or similar space (often used for storage) in the roof of a house or other building.
3. (textiles) The thickness of a soft object when not under pressure.
4. A gallery or raised apartment in a church, hall, etc.

   an organ loft

5. (golf) The pitch or slope of the face of a golf club (tending to drive the ball upward).
6. (obsolete) A floor or room placed above another.
   • Bible, Acts xx. 9

     Eutychus […] fell down from the third loft.

loft (third-person singular simple present lofts, present participle lofting, simple past and past participle lofted)

1. (transitive) To propel high into the air.
   • 2011 September 28, Tom Rostance, “Arsenal 2 - 1 Olympiakos”, in BBC Sport‎:

     Marouane Chamakh then spurned a great chance to kill the game off when he ran onto Andrey Arshavin's lofted through ball but shanked his shot horribly across the face of goal.

2. (intransitive) To fly or travel through the air, as though propelled
   • 2004, Wallace Akin, The Forgotten Storm:

     When she saw houses lofting past her window, she ran to the child, who slept on a feather bed and she gathered the coverlet around them both.

3. (bowling) To throw the ball erroneously through the air instead of releasing it on the lane's surface.
4. (transitive) To furnish with a loft space.
   • 1853, Parliamentary Papers, House of Commons and Command

     Two sisters, one under fifteen years of age, have lofted the house, so as to have a room for themselves.

loft (comparative more loft, superlative most loft)

1. (obsolete, rare) lofty; proud; haughty

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Surrey to this entry?)

Cognate to luft (“air”).

loft

1. attic, room immediately below the roof of a building
2. ceiling, structure separating stories in a building
3. (by extension) an upper limit to something

• IPA^(key): /lɔft/
• Rhymes: -ɔft

loft n (genitive singular lofts, nominative plural loft)

1. air
2. sky
3. loft, attic
4. ceiling

• andrúmsloft
• himinn
• háaloft

From Old Norse lopt

loft n (definite singular loftet, indefinite plural loft, definite plural lofta or loftene)

1. a loft or attic
2. a two-storey medieval building

• “loft” in The Bokmål Dictionary.

From Old Norse lopt

loft n (definite singular loftet, indefinite plural loft, definite plural lofta)

1. a loft or attic
2. a two-storey medieval building

• “loft” in The Nynorsk Dictionary.

loft m (plural lofts)

1. loft

loft c (plural loften)

1. sky
2. group of clouds

• “loft”, in Wurdboek fan de Fryske taal (in Dutch), 2011