LOOSE • FREE-TRANSLATOR.COM • Definition of Loose

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Loose

adjective

(compar. looser; superl. loosest)

1.

Not compact or dense in structure or arrangement. Antonym: compact.

2.

(of a ball in sport) not in the possession or control of any player.

3.

Not tight; not closely constrained or constricted or constricting. "The large shoes were very loose" Antonym: tight.

4.

Not officially recognized or controlled. Synonym: informal. "A loose organization of the local farmers"

5.

Not literal. Synonyms: free, liberal. "A free translation of the poem"

6.

Emptying easily or excessively. Synonym: lax.

7.

Not affixed. Synonym: unaffixed. Antonym: affixed.

8.

Not tense or taut. Synonym: slack. "Slack and wrinkled skin" , "Slack sails" , "A slack rope"

9.

(of textures) full of small openings or gaps. Synonym: open. "A loose weave"

10.

Lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility. Synonym: idle. "A loose tongue"

11.

Not carefully arranged in a package.

12.

Having escaped, especially from confinement. Synonyms: at large, escaped, on the loose. "Searching for two escaped prisoners" , "Dogs loose on the streets" , "Criminals on the loose in the neighborhood"

13.

Casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior. Synonyms: easy, light, promiscuous, sluttish, wanton. "He was told to avoid loose (or light) women" , "Wanton behavior"

verb

(past & past part. loosed; pres. part. loosing)

1.

Grant freedom to; free from confinement. Synonyms: free, liberate, release, unloose, unloosen. Antonym: confine.

2.

Turn loose or free from restraint. Synonyms: let loose, unleash. "Loose terrible plagues upon humanity"

3.

Make loose or looser. Synonym: loosen. Antonym: stiffen.

4.

Become loose or looser or less tight. Synonyms: loosen, relax. "The rope relaxed" Antonym: stiffen.

adverb

1.

Without restraint. Synonym: free.

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WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University

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"Loose" Quotes from Famous Books

... down, as everything merely animal must forever do. Such are the actions of the two races, when left to themselves, as all their works attest. Subdue the negro as we do the other animals, and like them, teach them all we can; then turn them loose, free them entirely from the restraints and control of the white race, and, just like all other animals or beasts so treated, back to his native nature and wildness and barbarism and the worship of daemons, he will go. Not so with Adam's ...

— The Negro: what is His Ethnological Status? 2nd Ed. • Buckner H. 'Ariel' Payne

... unsuccessful diplomatic manoeuvres. For three months the Government laboured to bring about through a European council some solution that should both save something for Denmark and save its own prestige. Repeatedly Palmerston, in the many parliamentary debates on Denmark, broke loose from his Cabinet colleagues and indulged in threats which could not fail to give an excellent handle to opponents when once it became clear that the Ministry had no intention of coming in arms to the defence of the ...

— Great Britain and the American Civil War • Ephraim Douglass Adams

... was a certain amount of moisture below the surface. The tents were soon erected by the side of those of the first party, and when the fires were lighted and the camels unloaded, taken to the water and then turned loose to browse among the trees, the place ...

— The Dash for Khartoum - A Tale of Nile Expedition • George Alfred Henty

... contributions, forage, and provisions for the use of their invaders; and what was still more terrifying to them, the partisan Fischer, whose cruelties the last war they still remembered with horror, was again let loose upon them by the inhumanity of the empress-queen. Wesel was immediately occupied by the French; Emmerick and Maseyk soon shared the same fate; and the city of Gueldres was besieged, the Prussians seeming resolved to defend this last place; to which end they opened ...

— The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. - From William and Mary to George II. • Tobias Smollett

... performed was frankly called a bath-rub in a bathroom; but now creme de la creme know only 'lavatory.' Just so, in the march of culture and reform, such vulgarly nude phrases as 'deceitful' have been taken forcibly to a popular tailor, and when they are let loose on society again you never dream that you meet anything but becomingly dressed 'policy;' and fashionable 'diplomacy' has hunted 'insincerity'—that other horrid remnant of old-fogyism—as far away from civilization as are the lava beds of the Modocs. ...

— Infelice • Augusta Jane Evans Wilson

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