Definitions
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. The state of being loose or relaxed; laxness of attachment, adjustment, connection, or coherence: as, the looseness of a cord or a vein; looseness of the skin, of earth, or of the texture of cloth; looseness of expression or of reasoning.
- n. Irregularity; instability; habitual deviation from rules; as applied to conduct, laxity; immorality; disorder.
- n. Flux from the bowels; diarrhea.
Wiktionary
- n. The quality or fact of being free from rigidity, attachment or restraint; not tight, not firmly attached or taut.
- n. A relaxed state regarding principles or accuracy.
- n. Moral laxity; licentiousness.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The state, condition, or quality, of being loose
WordNet 3.0
- n. the quality of movability by virtue of being free from attachment or other restraints
- n. movement or space for movement
- n. dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure
- n. frequent and watery bowel movements; can be a symptom of infection or food poisoning or colitis or a gastrointestinal tumor
- n. a lack of strict accuracy; laxity of practice
- n. freedom from restraint
Etymologies
- From loose + -ness. (Wiktionary)
Examples
“The point is trivial, since she was six months old at the time of this first visit and obviously remembered nothing of it, but it indicates a certain looseness in brushwork.”
“I'm glad you like the looseness, which is inevitable when working fast.”
“It ought also to be observed that all such kinds of argument are a plea for looseness, which is not the manner of God.”
“One great cause of all the wickedness, and violence, and looseness, that is upon the earth, is, they do not believe that God is near them and stands by them.”
The Works of Dr. John Tillotson, Late Archbishop of Canterbury. Vol. 07.
“And it does suggest a looseness which is dangerous to the president.”
“May no careless or corrupt administration of justice or "looseness" or infidelities of the people come in to bring down the wrath of Heaven for its interruption!”
Luther and the Reformation: The Life-Springs of Our Liberties
“And they went in, as such reckless men generally do, spending their money as freely as they could, and drinking with a "looseness" that promised headaches on the morrow, if nothing more.”
“And it was a free admiration he would not have dared show had she not been a daughter of illegitimacy -- a girl whose mother's "looseness" raised pleasing if scandalous suggestions and even possibilities in the mind of every man with a carnal eye.”
“Except for this error, which may be regarded as constant, we use the word with reckless looseness, meaning a dozen different things by it, and yet always assuming that to a respectable man it can have only one meaning.”
“A looseness which is of no consequence in the winter may well excite uneasiness during the summer months.”
The Physical Life of Woman: Advice to the Maiden, Wife and Mother
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