loose
pronunciation
How to pronounce loose in British English:
UK [luːs]
How to pronounce loose in American English:
US [luːs]
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- Verb:
- grant freedom to; free from confinement
- turn loose or free from restraint
- make loose or looser
- become loose or looser or less tight
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- Adjective:
- not restrained or confined or attached
- not compact or dense in structure or arrangement
- (of a ball in sport) not in the possession or control of any player
- not tight; not closely constrained or constricted or constricting
- not officially recognized or controlled
- not literal
- emptying easily or excessively
- not affixed
- not tense or taut
- (of textures) full of small openings or gaps
- not fixed firmly or tightly
- lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility
- not carefully arranged in a package
- freely producing mucus
- having escaped, especially from confinement
- casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior
- not bound or fastened or gathered together
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- Adverb:
- without restraint
Word Origin
- loose
- loose: [13] Loose is one of a large family of words that go back ultimately to Indo-European *lau-, *leu-, *lu-, which denoted ‘undoing’. It includes (via Greek) analyse and paralyse, (via Latin) dissolve and solution, and (via Germanic) lose and the suffix -less. Loose itself was borrowed from Old Norse laus, which was descended from a prehistoric Germanic *lausaz.=> analyse, dissolve, lose, paralyse, solution
- loose (adj.)
- early 13c., "not securely fixed;" c. 1300, "unbound," from Old Norse lauss "loose, free, vacant, dissolute," cognate with Old English leas "devoid of, false, feigned, incorrect," from Proto-Germanic *lausaz (cognates: Danish løs "loose, untied," Swedish lös "loose, movable, detached," Middle Dutch, German los "loose, free," Gothic laus "empty, vain"), from PIE *leu- "to loosen, divide, cut apart" (see lose). Meaning "not clinging, slack" is mid-15c. Meaning "not bundled" is late 15c. Sense of "unchaste, immoral" is recorded from late 15c. Meaning "at liberty, free from obligation" is 1550s. Sense of "rambling, disconnected" is from 1680s. Figurative sense of loose cannon was in use by 1896, probably from celebrated image in a popular story by Hugo: You can reason with a bull dog, astonish a bull, fascinate a boa, frighten a tiger, soften a lion; no resource with such a monster as a loose cannon. You cannot kill it, it is dead; and at the same time it lives. It lives with a sinister life which comes from the infinite. It is moved by the ship, which is moved by the sea, which is moved by the wind. This exterminator is a plaything. [Victor Hugo, "Ninety Three"] Loose end in reference to something unfinished, undecided, unguarded is from 1540s; to be at loose ends is from 1807. Phrase on the loose "free, unrestrained" is from 1749 (upon the loose).
- loose (v.)
- early 13c, "to set free," from loose (adj.). Meaning "to undo, untie, unfasten" is 14c. Related: Loosed; loosing.
Example
- 1. Fiscal policy is also too loose in many places .
- 2. And the group clearly maintains a loose central command .
- 3. She needs to be brushed and one shoe is loose .
- 4. For brazil , it is apparently too loose .
- 5. Of course , mr. obama was a little loose along the way .