loft

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
loft/lɒft/

▶noun

• 1 a room or storage space directly under the roof of a house or other building.

  ■ a gallery in a church or hall.

  ■ a large, open area in a warehouse or other large building that has been converted into living space.

  ■ US part of a room on a higher level than the rest of the room.

• 2 a pigeon house.

• 3 Golf upward inclination given to the ball in a stroke.

  ■ backward slope of the head of a club, designed to give such inclination.

• 4 the thickness of insulating matter in an object such as a sleeping bag.

▶verb

• 1 kick, hit, or throw (a ball or missile) high up.

• 2 (usu. as adj. lofted) give loft to the head of (a golf club).

– origin OE, from ON lopt ‘air, upper room’, of Gmc origin.