Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To untie or make looser.
- v. To free from restraint, pressure, or strictness.
- v. To free (the bowels) from constipation.
- v. To become loose or looser.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To make loose; free from tightness, tension, firmness, or fixedness: as, to loosen a knot; to loosen a joint; to loosen a rock in the earth.
- To render less dense or compact: as, to loosen the soil about the roots of a plant.
- To let loose; free from restraint or confinement.
- To become loose; become less tight, firm, or compact.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To make loose; to free from tightness, tension, firmness, or fixedness; to make less dense or compact
- v. To free from restraint; to set at liberty..
- v. To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of.
- v. To become loose; to become less tight, firm, or compact.
WordNet 3.0
- v. make less severe or strict
- v. make loose or looser
- v. disentangle and raise the fibers of
- v. become less severe or strict
- v. cause to become loose
- v. become loose or looser or less tight
- v. make less dense
Etymologies
- loose + -en (Wiktionary)
- Middle English lousnen, losnen, from losen, from los, loose; see loose. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Cool in the pan for 15 minutes or so; be sure to cut around the sides to loosen from the pan before cutting and serving. comments”
“Cool in the pan for 15 minutes or so; be sure to cut around the sides to loosen from the pan before cutting and serving.”
“Also admittedly, loosen is more common by far than either of the un - forms, and Tiffany would have done better to use it.”
“As George Santayana wrote, the only bond that a modern liberal wants to loosen is the marriage bond.”
“Wood screws are preferred over nails for assembly, as potato bugs have been known to ram against the walls until the nails eventually loosen from the wood and work free, compromising the integrity of the structure, and allowing the creatures to infest your house and lay eggs in your ear canal or anus.”
“We winos are having to tighten, which is to say loosen, our belts.”
“Discussions are taking place in the Pentagon over how to "loosen" the restrictions imposed by the disastrous "don't ask, don't tell" policy, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.”
“And, you know -- so that can kind of loosen up the rock material.”
“I'm going to allow you to kind of loosen your shoulders up.”
“And -- and then I thought, you know, maybe talking to Tom in Tupelo might kind of loosen him up a little bit, might even make him a Democrat.”
There's Nothing in the Middle of the Road But Yellow Stripes and Dead Armadillos
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘loosen’.
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Interesting words
A list of words that are odd or words that I have looked up.
concupiscence, brize, scree, scoria, forestaff, spanaemia, valetudinarianism, distasture, pyrethrum, laudanum, gentian, bicameral and 11184 more...
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Russian Doll Words
A Russian Doll word is a word that, when you remove the first and last letters, is either the empty string, or a Russian Doll word. These are all of the 6 or more letter Russian Doll words found in...
waspiness, upraisers, strainers, sporangia, raspiness, prelatess, methanals, gaspiness, washings, uprisers, upraises, upraiser and 2373 more...
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Cage
cage, depart, nothing, void, strain, unconscious, never, alone, floor, God, hell, winter and 219 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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astrosfan's Words
pantaloons, schadenfreude, astonishing, eve, static, freeze, luscious, voluptuous, stagnant, mimic, speed, vespertillinoid and 302 more...
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to nounen and adjectiven
Verbs constructed with the -en suffix.
hearten, gladden, flatten, smarten, blacken, frighten, lighten, brighten, liven, shorten, heighten, fatten and 23 more...
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