Definition of "loiter"

The dancing, which had been suspended, now recommenced with additional animation, and De Candale claimed Francesca's hand; but the rooms were crowded, and they stood for some time loitering on one of the terraces.

1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter V, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume II, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 47

For on what does the whole vast and varied membership of the craft rest? It rests, of course, on the little boys whom you see any day loitering about on the far end of station platforms in every part of the British Isles, each one with his grubby notebook and blunt pencil, and his list of all the engines on the railway system, collecting their numbers and names in the vain hope that one day he will have collected them all.

1948 September and October, Canon Roger Lloyd, “The Art and Mystery of the Railway”, in Railway Magazine, page 331

[Sergio] Agüero, as usual, was loitering with intent and swung his left foot at the ball. The shot was going wide but [David] Silva was there to apply the decisive touch inside the six-yard area.

2015 January 31, Daniel Taylor, “David Silva seizes point for Manchester City as Chelsea are checked”, in The Guardian‎, London, archived from the original on 8 March 2017

Using the transect method, the counter had to maintain a general progress along the transect and was not able to loiter at one spot for too long.

2019, Li Huang, James Lambert, “Another Arrow for the Quiver: A New Methodology for Multilingual Researchers”, in Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, page 4

Oh, Sir, we just got up in the morning and had a loiter and a pipe on the green; then we got our breakfasts; […]

1865, Edward Spooner, Parson and People, page 125