aloof
uh-LOOFadjMeaning cool and distant; not friendly or involved
Memory hook A-LOOF: alone up on the ROOF. While the family plays in the yard below, the cat sits alone on the roof and won’t come down. The cat is aloof.
The aloof cat watched the party from the top of the bookshelf.
In context At the reunion, everyone hugged and chatted, but Victor stayed aloof, standing alone by the window and answering questions with a single word.
Similar distant, reserved, standoffish, withdrawn
Opposite friendly, warm, sociable
From an old sailors’ word meaning “to windward,” used of steering a ship away from something; aloof people keep their distance.