not friendly or forthcoming; cool and distant:they were courteous but faintly aloofan aloof and somewhat austere figure
conspicuously uninvolved:he stayed aloof from the bickering
Derivatives
aloofly
adverb
aloofness
noun
Origin:
mid 16th century: from a-2 (expressing direction) + luff. The term was originally an adverb in nautical use, meaning 'away and to windward!', i.e. with the ship's head kept close to the wind away from a lee shore etc. towards which it might drift. From this arose the sense 'at a distance'
