loaf
part of speech
noun (loaf, loaves); verb (loaf, loafs, loafed, loafing — to be lazy)
meaning for a pupil
1) A loaf is bread baked in one big piece, before it is cut into slices. tree →
2) A meat loaf is minced meat cooked in a loaf shape. tree →
3) To loaf, or loaf around, is to spend time doing nothing. tree →
sense in the lessons
In school maths: a counted thing of bread; slices per loaf (slices = loaves × slices each); a price per loaf. In everyday life: buying a loaf at the bakery, making sandwiches. In stories: the Little Red Hen baked a loaf of bread. Phrases: «a loaf of bread», «a sliced loaf», «use your loaf» (UK: think!), «half a loaf is better than none».
examples
- A baker makes 40 loaves a day. tree →
- Each loaf has 12 slices. tree →
- A loaf costs 2 dollars. tree →
- How many loaves for 60 slices? tree →
- Please buy a loaf of bread on the way home. tree →
- The Little Red Hen baked a loaf all by herself. tree →
- The fresh loaf smelled wonderful. tree →
- He loafed around all Saturday. tree →
- 'Crumble those three loaves for the ants,' he said. tree →
note
Plural «loaves» (f changes to v), like leaf → leaves. Maths: group with a size: slices = loaves × slices each. Trap: the plural is «loaves»; with leftover slices you still need one more loaf.
In the corpora
- Cartoon ducks gobble whole loaves of bread and cartoon swans break people's arms.
- Mould spreads threads through soft food like bread further than you can see, so throw the whole loaf away.
- A loaf has a set number of slices, and a shop sells only whole loaves.
- Count the sandwiches, double them to get the slices, then find how many whole loaves give that many slices.
- Jesus fed five thousand people with a boy's five loaves and two fish, and twelve baskets were left over.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «loaf» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.