Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not fastened, restrained, or contained.
- adjective Not taut, fixed, or rigid.
- adjective Free from confinement or imprisonment; unfettered.
- adjective Not tight-fitting or tightly fitted.
- adjective Not bound, bundled, stapled, or gathered together.
- adjective Not compact or dense in arrangement or structure.
- adjective Lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility; idle.
- adjective Not formal; relaxed.
- adjective Lacking conventional moral restraint in sexual behavior.
- adjective Not literal or exact.
- adjective Characterized by a free movement of fluids in the body.
- adverb In a loose manner.
- transitive verb To let loose; release.
- transitive verb To make loose; undo.
- transitive verb To cast loose; detach.
- transitive verb To let fly; discharge.
- transitive verb To release pressure or obligation from; absolve.
- transitive verb To make less strict; relax.
- idiom (on the loose) At large; free.
- idiom (on the loose) Acting in an uninhibited fashion.
from The Century Dictionary.
- In archery, to release (the bowstring) after the bow is drawn, thus discharging the arrow.
- Not fast or confined; not fastened; unattached; free from restraint or obligation; not bound to another or together; without bonds, ties, or attachments; at liberty: as, loose sheets of a book; loose tresses of hair; loose change in one's pocket; to break loose; to be set loose; to cut loose from bad habits.
- Not tight or close; without close union or adjustment; slightly or slackly joined: as, a loose knot; loose garments; a loose league or confederation.
- Not dense or compact; having interstices or intervals; open or expanded: as, cloth of loose texture; a loose order of battle.
- Not concise or condensed; wanting precision or connection of parts; diffuse; rambling: as, a loose style of writing; loose reasoning; a loose array of facts.
- Not exact in meaning; indefinite; vague; uncertain.
- Lax; relaxed; slack; wanting retentiveness or power of restraint: as, loose bowels; loose ties; a loose bond of union.
- Lax in character or quality; not strict or exact; careless; slovenly: as, a loose construction of the constitution; a loose mode of conducting business; loose morality.
- Lax in principle or conduct; free from moral restraint; wanton; dissolute; unchaste: as, a loose woman; loose behavior.
- Disengaged; free; independent: with from or of.
- Seemingly communicative; frank; open; candid.
- noun Freedom from restraint; license.
- noun The act of letting go or letting fly; discharge; shot.
- noun A solution of a problem or explanation of a difficulty.
- noun The privilege of turning out cattle on commons.
- To make loose or free; release from that which restrains, confines, or hampers; set at liberty; disengage; discharge from constraint, obligation, or penalty.
- To disengage the hold of; undo; unfasten; untie.
- To relax; loosen; make or let loose, partially or wholly: as, to
loose sail; to loose one's hold or grasp. - To solve; explain.
- Synonyms To unfasten, let go, detach, disconnect, absolve, acquit.
- To perform the act of loosening; make or set loose something; let go a hold, unmoor a ship, shoot an arrow, or the like.
- In chem., not combined with anything else: as, carbon dioxid loose in the blood. The word free is more commonly used in this sense.
- In geology, incoherent, as unconsolidated sands.
- In coal-mining, free at the ends or sides: applied to a working-place when the coal has been previously mined on both sides: as, loose at one end, loose at one side, etc.
- noun In Rugby foot-ball, that part of the play in which the ball travels freely from player to player, as distinguished from the scrimmage.
- noun In mining, the end of a shift. Also
loosing-time . When the workmen leave, the pit is said to be ‘loosed out.’ - noun In archery: The act of releasing the bow-string and discharging the arrow.
- noun The mode of performing this act, which differs among different peoples.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete Freedom from restraint.
- noun A letting go; discharge.
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Examples
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There were loose ends, but there always are; that's why you have the phrase loose ends.
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"I hate to use the word loose cannon, but he is," she said "It distresses me that Newt is pulling ahead, because I don't think he's electable at all."
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(B) loose-slippings: never saw or heard it; the term loose chippings refers to gravel or crushed stone that has not yet been bonded into fresh asphalt in a road repair.
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Also Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned against what he called "loose talk" about the ease of establishing a no-fly zone.
Obama signals willingness to intervene militarily in Libya if crisis worsens
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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decried what he called "loose talk" about establishing a no-fly zone in Libya, saying such an operation would require a military strike.
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In Poland, he sought to convey lessons from those experiences to urge finance ministers from the 17-nation euro zone to speak with one voice and halt what he called "loose talk about dismantling the institutions of the euro."
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Also Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned against what he called "loose talk" about the ease of establishing a no-fly zone.
Obama signals willingness to intervene militarily in Libya if crisis worsens
-
Also Wednesday, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned against what he called "loose talk" about the ease of establishing a no-fly zone.
Obama signals willingness to intervene militarily in Libya if crisis worsens
-
U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decried what he called "loose talk" about establishing a no-fly zone in Libya, saying such an operation would require a military strike.
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U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decried what he called "loose talk" about establishing a no-fly zone in Libya, saying such an operation would require a military strike.
ruzuzu commented on the word loose
"The privilege of turning out cattle on commons." --CD&C
May 17, 2012