aloof

5 definitions found

aloof - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Aloof \A*loof"\, n. (Zool.)
     Same as Alewife.
     [1913 Webster]

  Aloof \A*loof"\, adv. [Pref. a- + loof, fr. D. loef luff, and so
     meaning, as a nautical word, to the windward. See Loof,
     Luff.]
     1. At or from a distance, but within view, or at a small
        distance; apart; away.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Our palace stood aloof from streets.  --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Without sympathy; unfavorably.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              To make the Bible as from the hand of God, and then
              to look at it aloof and with caution, is the worst
              of all impieties.                     --I. Taylor.
        [1913 Webster]

  Aloof \A*loof"\, prep.
     Away from; clear from. [Obs.]
     [1913 Webster]
  
           Rivetus . . . would fain work himself aloof these rocks
           and quicksands.                          --Milton.
     [1913 Webster]

aloof - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  aloof
      adv 1: in an aloof manner; "the local gentry and professional
             classes had held aloof for the school had accepted their
             sons readily enough"
      adj 1: remote in manner; "stood apart with aloof dignity"; "a
             distant smile"; "he was upstage with strangers" [syn:
             aloof, distant, upstage]

aloof - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  181 Moby Thesaurus words for "aloof":
     Laodicean, Olympian, above, above all that, abovestairs, airward,
     alienated, aloft, alone, antisocial, apart, apathetic, arrogant,
     at a distance, away, backward, bashful, benumbed, blah, blank,
     blase, bored, broken, careless, casual, chilled, chilly, cold,
     comatose, companionless, constrained, cool, desensitized, detached,
     disconnected, discontinuous, discreet, discrete, disdainful,
     disinterested, distant, distantly, dull, exclusive, expressionless,
     forbidding, formal, friendless, frigid, frosty, gapped, guarded,
     haughty, heartless, hebetudinous, heedless, high, high up,
     homeless, hopeless, icy, impassive, impersonal, in a stupor,
     in the air, in the clouds, inaccessible, incoherent, inconsistent,
     incurious, indifferent, insouciant, insular, introverted, isolated,
     kithless, languid, lethargic, listless, lone, lonely, lonesome,
     mindless, modest, nonadherent, nonadhesive, nonchalant,
     noncoherent, noncohesive, numb, numbed, off, offish, on high,
     on stilts, on the peak, on tiptoe, open, over, overhead, passive,
     phlegmatic, pluckless, private, proud, regardless, remote,
     remotely, removed, repressed, reserved, resigned, restrained,
     reticent, retiring, rootless, seclusive, separate, separated,
     shrinking, single-handed, skyward, slack, sluggish, solitary, solo,
     soporific, spiritless, spunkless, standoff, standoffish, stoic,
     stolid, straight up, stupefied, subdued, supercilious, supine,
     suppressed, tenuous, tiptoe, to the zenith, torpid, unabetted,
     unaccompanied, unadhesive, unaffable, unaided, unapproachable,
     unassisted, unattended, unbending, uncaring, uncoherent,
     uncohesive, uncompanionable, unconcerned, uncongenial, unconnected,
     undemonstrative, unescorted, unexpansive, unfriendly, ungenial,
     uninquiring, uninterested, uninvolved, unjoined, unmindful,
     unresponsive, unseconded, unsociable, unsocial, unsupported,
     unsympathetic, untenacious, up, upstairs, upward, upwards,
     withdrawn