adjective
definition
Reserved and remote; either physically or emotionally distant; standoffish.
adverb
definition
At or from a distance, but within view, or at a small distance; apart; away.
definition
Without sympathy; unfavorably.
preposition
definition
Away from; clear of.
Examples of aloof in a Sentence
His aloof response made her look up.
He kept himself aloof from all party strife.
Fersen stood quite aloof from the revolution of 1809.
The Magyar nation stood aloof from it.
In politics, while he held aloof from the clubs, and even from parties, he was an ardent defender of the new institutions.
Darnley stood aloof, in fear and anger.
The skipper held aloof from everybody, hardly holding converse with the mate.
I simply wish to refuse allegiance to the State, to withdraw and stand aloof from it effectually.
What has here to be traced is the history of the great body of Benedictine monasteries that held aloof from these separatist movements.
The so-called Independents, such as Barras and Merlin of Douai, who were all Jacobins, but had stood aloof from the internal conflicts of the party, hated Royalism as much as ever and desired the continuance of the war which was essential to their power.
Those in his confidence afterwards denied that Emmet was himself the originator of the plan on which he acted; and several of the ablest of the United Irishmen held aloof, believing the project to be impracticable.
Only Roderic of Connaught held aloof in- his western solitudes, asserting his independence.
All men of political influence were either in open opposition or, when they belonged to the Conservative parties, were holding aloof in disgust at the predominance of the queens favorites, Gonzales Brabo, a mere ruffian, and Marion, her steward, whose position in the palace was perfectly well known.
He held aloof, for this very reason, from all Zionist schemes.
He then affected to hold aloof, and would have been arrested, had not the minister of war, Ceballos, answered for his good behaviour, and quartered him in Avila under surveillance.
His noble features and cold, aloof air gave her the impression of an ancient Greek prince.
His challenge on George McCluskey's shin provoked an all-out brawl from which only Hibs keeper Alan Rough remained aloof.
Or are we British just too aloof, too cynical, too oblique?
Painted dark red, it stood majestic and aloof behind its elaborate Baroque railing, an old, shady garden spreading in its background.
He became premier and minister of finance on the 31st of May 1887, with the support of the moderate republican groups, the Radicals holding aloof in support of General Boulanger, who began a violent agitation against the government.
The Panhellenic alliance (from which Sparta still stood aloof) against the barbarians was renewed.
Of the seven colonies New South Wales and New Zealand stood aloof from the council, and from the beginning it was therefore shorn of a large share of the prestige that would have attached to a body speaking and acting on behalf of a united Australia.
For the moment Germany was to hold aloof lest any active initiative on her part should displease the Vatican, of whose help Bismarck stood in need.
He held somewhat aloof from the political struggles of the Waldeck-Rousseau and Combes ministries, travelling considerably in foreign countries.
Always holding aloof from politics, he was an ardent and indefatigable advocate of social reform in India, especially as regards child marriage and the remarriage of widows.
In the Peloponnese he routed a force under Corragus and, although Athens held aloof, he was joined by [[Elis (disambiguation)|Elis, Achaea (except Pellene]]) and Arcadia, with the exception of Megalopolis, which the allies besieged.
Struthio alone still stands aloof, possibly because it is the oldest and most specialized form.
As opposed to Jaures, he contended that the Socialists should co-operate actively with the Radicals in all matters of reform, and not stand aloof to await the complete fulfilment of their ideals.
On the ist of January 1897 he was appointed president of the newly created judicial commission at Budapest, and for the next few years held aloof from politics, even under the ex-lex government of Fejervary.
Baron Sonnino held aloof, but Premier Signor Orlando, greeted the congress with enthusiasm, and the first result was a combined propaganda on the Italian front, organized by Allied delegates and members of all the national committees.
An internal trial of strength continued throughout the winter between the rival governmental groups, until in May 1920 a breach was only averted by a reconstruction of the Cabinet under Vesnic, who as Serbian minister in Paris since 1904 enjoyed wide prestige, and though a Radical, stood aloof from party dissensions.
The Boers, however, continued to agitate for complete independence, and, with the honourable exception of Piet Uys, a gallant Boer leader, and a small band of followers, who assisted Colonel Evelyn Wood at Hlobani, the Boers held entirely aloof from the conflict with the Zulus, a campaign which cost Great Britain many lives and £5,000,000 before the Zulu power was finally broken.
So long as he held aloof from Ledru-Rollin and the more radical of his colleagues, the disunion resulting weakened the government; as soon as he effected an approximation to them the middle classes fell off from him.
His efforts had not succeeded in placing him in a position of independence; and at last, in 1867, the government of the Empire (from which he had perforce stood aloof, though he never considered it necessary to adopt the active protesting attitude of Edgar Quinet and Victor Hugo) came to his assistance, a vote of 20,000 being proposed in April of that year for his benefit by Emile 0111vier.
Large numbers of business men and others who must of necessity live in proximity to the metropolis have their homes aloof from its centre.
Other early metropolitan foundations have been moved in accordance with modern tendencies either into the country or to sites aloof from the heart of London.
Dortmund held aloof from the Cologne Confederation on the ground that it had no concern in Scandinavian politics.
In 1482 he reluctantly accepted a mission to Ferrara, and, regarding earthly affections as snares of the evil one, tried to keep aloof from his family.
Hence his doctrines were open to damaging attacks from both sides, the more so as he always stood aloof from the academic spirit and its representatives.
In these he holds aloof for the most part from theological controversy, and treats in an admirable tone and spirit the themes of faith, simplicity, the fear of God, poverty, greed, abstinence and unchastity.
In the following year (337) Philip was in the Peloponnesus, and a congress of the Greek states at the Isthmus (from which, however, Sparta held sullenly aloof) recognized Philip as captain-general for the war against Persia.
Though he kept aloof from the Clerical party, Kaln6ky was a strong Catholic; and his sympathy for the difficulties of the Church caused adverse comment in Italy, when, in 1891, he stated in a speech before the Delegations that the question of the position of the pope was still unsettled.
For a long while Sidney kept himself aloof from the duke of Monmouth, to whom he was introduced by Lord Howard.
About this time he held aloof from Bonaparte, but though he declined to help Napoleon in the preparations for the coup d'etat of November 1799, he accepted employment from the Consulate, and from April 1800 till the 18th of August 1801 commanded the army in La Vendee.
Though the bulk of his confiscated estates were lost beyond recall, he did not share the resentment of the mass of the returned emigres, from whom and their intrigues he had held aloof during his exile, and was far from sharing their delusions as to the possibility of undoing the work of the Revolution.
He held aloof at first from the Polish national rising of 1830, but at the general request of his countrymen accepted the dictatorship on the 5th of December 1830; on the 23rd of January 1831, however, he resigned in order to fight as a common soldier.
Manitoba was the first to be constituted; in 1871 British Columbia, New which had hitherto held aloof, determined, under the persuasion of a sympathetic governor, Mr (later Sir) Antony Musgrave, to throw in its lot with the Dominion.
His determination to stand aloof from the great duel between Francis I.
He had perhaps no right to complain that he was kept aloof from all share in government while only heir apparent, for this was the traditional practice of his family.
The result was a want of unity in counsel and action among the provinces, Friesland and Groningen standing aloof from the other five, while Holland and Zeeland had to pay for their predominance in the Union by being left to bear the bulk of the charges.