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Loose   /lus/   Listen
adjective
Loose  adj.  (compar. looser; superl. loosest)  
1.
Unbound; untied; unsewed; not attached, fastened, fixed, or confined; as, the loose sheets of a book. "Her hair, nor loose, nor tied in formal plat."
2.
Free from constraint or obligation; not bound by duty, habit, etc.; with from or of. "Now I stand Loose of my vow; but who knows Cato's thoughts?"
3.
Not tight or close; as, a loose garment.
4.
Not dense, close, compact, or crowded; as, a cloth of loose texture. "With horse and chariots ranked in loose array."
5.
Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose style, or way of reasoning. "The comparison employed... must be considered rather as a loose analogy than as an exact scientific explanation."
6.
Not strict in matters of morality; not rigid according to some standard of right. "The loose morality which he had learned."
7.
Unconnected; rambling. "Vario spends whole mornings in running over loose and unconnected pages."
8.
Lax; not costive; having lax bowels.
9.
Dissolute; unchaste; as, a loose man or woman. "Loose ladies in delight."
10.
Containing or consisting of obscene or unchaste language; as, a loose epistle.
At loose ends, not in order; in confusion; carelessly managed.
Fast and loose. See under Fast.
To break loose. See under Break.
Loose pulley. (Mach.) See Fast and loose pulleys, under Fast.
To let loose, to free from restraint or confinement; to set at liberty.


noun
Loose  n.  
1.
Freedom from restraint. (Obs.)
2.
A letting go; discharge.
To give a loose, to give freedom. "Vent all its griefs, and give a loose to sorrow."


verb
Loose  v. i.  To set sail. (Obs.)


Loose  v.  (past & past part. loosed; pres. part. loosing)  
1.
To untie or unbind; to free from any fastening; to remove the shackles or fastenings of; to set free; to relieve. "Canst thou... loose the bands of Orion?" "Ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them unto me."
2.
To release from anything obligatory or burdensome; to disengage; hence, to absolve; to remit. "Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife." "Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven."
3.
To relax; to loosen; to make less strict. "The joints of his loins were loosed."
4.
To solve; to interpret. (Obs.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Loose" Quotes from Famous Books



... sight, the gleam of that lake by Capernaum and Chorazin, and many a place loved by Him, and vainly ministered to, whose house was now left unto them desolate; and, chief of all, far in the utmost blue, the hills above Nazareth, sloping down to His old home: hills on which yet the stones lay loose, that had been taken up to cast at Him, when He left them ...
— Modern Painters, Volume IV (of V) • John Ruskin
... but I shouldn't wonder if that was his hot head and bull temper as much as anything else. As to whether he's anything more than foolish or not, course I couldn't say sartin, but I don't think he's too desperate to be runnin' loose. I cal'late he won't put any bombs underneath the town hall or anything of that sort. Phin and his kind remind me some of that new kind of balloon you was tellin' me they'd probably have over to your camp when 'twas done, that—er—er—dirigible; ...
— Shavings • Joseph C. Lincoln
... clearly disregarded him. Raymond of Toulouse himself saved those in the Tower of David, and managed to send them safely with their property to Ascalon. But revolution with all its evil as well as its good was loose and raging in the streets of the Holy City. And in nothing do we see that spirit of revolution more clearly than in the sight of all those peasants and serfs and vassals, in that one wild moment in revolt, not only against the conquered lords of ...
— The New Jerusalem • G. K. Chesterton
... work. The dust, the odor of burning flesh, the heat of the corral fire for heating the irons, the bellowing of frightened mother cows, and the bleating of the calves, the struggles with the victims, these try men's strength and tempers severely. Once branded, the calf is turned loose and not touched again until it is four years old and ready for the market. Stray unbranded cattle over a year old are known as "mavericks," and become the property ...
— The Round-up - A Romance of Arizona novelized from Edmund Day's melodrama • John Murray and Marion Mills Miller
... impulse is invoked, or vaguely the inability of primitive groups to adapt themselves to conditions, or to gain access to the necessities of life. Le Bon (42) speaks of the hunger and the desire that led Germanic forces as ancient hordes to turn themselves loose upon the world. ...
— The Psychology of Nations - A Contribution to the Philosophy of History • G.E. Partridge


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