loose

(lo͞os)

adj. loos·er, loos·est

1. Not fastened, restrained, or contained: loose bricks.

2. Not taut, fixed, or rigid: a loose anchor line; a loose chair leg.

3. Free from confinement or imprisonment; unfettered: criminals loose in the neighborhood; dogs that are loose on the streets.

4. Not tight-fitting or tightly fitted: loose shoes.

5. Not bound, bundled, stapled, or gathered together: loose papers.

6. Not compact or dense in arrangement or structure: loose gravel.

7. Lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility; idle: loose talk.

8. Not formal; relaxed: a loose atmosphere at the club.

9. Lacking conventional moral restraint in sexual behavior.

10. Not literal or exact: a loose translation.

11. Characterized by a free movement of fluids in the body: a loose cough; loose bowels.

adv.

In a loose manner.

tr.v. loosed, loos·ing, loos·es

1. To let loose; release: loosed the dogs.

2. To make loose; undo: loosed his belt.

3. To cast loose; detach: hikers loosing their packs at camp.

4. To let fly; discharge: loosed an arrow.

5. To release pressure or obligation from; absolve: loosed her from the responsibility.

6. To make less strict; relax: a leader's strong authority that was loosed by easy times.

Idiom:

on the loose

1. At large; free.

2. Acting in an uninhibited fashion.

[Middle English louse, los, from Old Norse lauss; see leu- in Indo-European roots.]

loose′ly adv.

loose′ness n.

Synonyms: loose, lax, slack¹
These adjectives mean not tautly bound, held, or fastened: loose reins; a lax rope; slack sails.

Antonym: tight

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Looseness

(Muscle) lax as a broken shade —Diane Ackerman
(Face) lax as a wax work —Daniel Berrigan
(The gear worked) loose as a hound’s shoulder —Elizabeth Spencer
Loose as a gossip’s tongue —Anon
Loose as ashes —Anon
Loose as eggs in a nest —Walter Savage Landor
Loose as windblown sand —Mark Helprin
Slack as a toad —Barbara Howes
Sprawled … lax as a drowned man —George Garrett

ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:

Noun	1.	looseness - frequent and watery bowel movements; can be a symptom of infection or food poisoning or colitis or a gastrointestinal tumor diarrhea, diarrhoea, looseness of the bowels dysentery - an infection of the intestines marked by severe diarrhea symptom - (medicine) any sensation or change in bodily function that is experienced by a patient and is associated with a particular disease the trots - obscene terms for diarrhea Montezuma's revenge - diarrhea contracted in Mexico or Central America
	2.	looseness - freedom from restraint; "the flexibility and looseness of the materials from which mythology is made" unrestraint - the quality of lacking restraint
	3.	looseness - a lack of strict accuracy; laxity of practice; "misunderstandings can often be traced to a looseness of expression" inaccuracy - the quality of being inaccurate and having errors
	4.	looseness - the quality of movability by virtue of being free from attachment or other restraints movability, movableness - the quality of being movable; capable of being moved or rearranged fixity, fastness, fixedness, secureness, fixture - the quality of being fixed in place as by some firm attachment
	5.	looseness - movement or space for movement; "there was too much play in the steering wheel" play movability, movableness - the quality of being movable; capable of being moved or rearranged wiggliness - a jerky back and forth kind of mobility; "he walked with the wiggliness of a child on high heels" slackness, slack - the quality of being loose (not taut); "he hadn't counted on the slackness of the rope" tautness, tightness - lack of movement or room for movement
	6.	looseness - dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure dissipation, licentiousness, profligacy, dissolution intemperateness, self-indulgence, intemperance - excess in action and immoderate indulgence of bodily appetites, especially in passion or indulgence; "the intemperance of their language"

Translations

عَدَم إحكام الرباط

uvolněnost

løshed

lausleiki, los

gevşeklik

looseness

[ˈluːsnɪs] N

1. (gen) [of bandage, tie] → lo flojo; [of clothes] → holgura f, amplitud f; [of soil] → lo suelto
looseness of the bowels (Med) → diarrea f

2. (= imprecision) [of meaning, expression] → imprecisión f; [of translation] → lo aproximado

3. (= immorality) [of behaviour, morals] → lo disoluto

Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

looseness

n → Lockerheit f; (of clothes) → Weite f; (of thinking) → Ungenauigkeit f; (of translation) → Freiheit f; looseness of the bowels → zu rege Darmtätigkeit; the looseness of her conduct → ihr loses or unmoralisches Benehmen; the looseness of the book’s structure → die lockere Struktur des Buches

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

looseness

[ˈluːsnɪs] n (of knot, screw) → lentezza; (of rope) → scarsa tensione f; (of clothes) → ampiezza; (of translation) → approssimazione f; (of behaviour) → dissipazione f, dissolutezza

Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

loose

(luːs) adjective

1. not tight; not firmly stretched. a loose coat; This belt is loose.

2. not firmly fixed. This button is loose.

3. not tied; free. The horses are loose in the field.

4. not packed; not in a packet. loose biscuits.

ˈloosely adverb

ˈlooseness noun

ˈloosen verb

1. to make or become loose. She loosened the string; The screw had loosened and fallen out.

2. to relax (eg a hold). He loosened his grip.

ˌloose-ˈleaf adjective

(of a notebook etc) made so that pages can easily be added or removed.

break loose

to escape. The prisoner broke loose.

let loose

to free from control. The circus trainer has let the lions loose.

a loose (not lose) screw.

Mentioned in

References in classic literature

Certainly they deserve some distinction from those works, which one of the wittiest of men regarded only as proceeding from a pruritus , or indeed rather from a looseness of the brain.

View in context

In a word, as the whole relation is carefully garbled of all the levity and looseness that was in it, so it all applied, and with the utmost care, to virtuous and religious uses.

View in context

He had asked himself whether a trap of that sort might not be easily set in a country notorious for the looseness of its marriage laws--if a man only knew how?

View in context

The first thing I would recommend him, would be to look to good name rather than to wealth, for a good woman does not win a good name merely by being good, but by letting it he seen that she is so, and open looseness and freedom do much more damage to a woman's honour than secret depravity.

View in context

She has a carriage, then, this niece of the doctor?" interrupted Porthos, one of whose faults was a great looseness of tongue.

View in context

He would never go far along that road again; but a man likes to assure himself, and men of pleasure generally, what he could do in the way of mischief if he chose, and that if he abstains from making himself ill, or beggaring himself, or talking with the utmost looseness which the narrow limits of human capacity will allow, it is not because he is a spooney.

View in context

Then he had to talk, to hear what was said to him and what was said back and forth, and to answer, when it was necessary, with a tongue prone to looseness of speech that required a constant curb.

View in context

It is to the looseness of the marriage tie that the late rapid decrease of the population of the Sandwich Islands and of Tahiti is in part to be ascribed.

View in context

There was something subtly wrong with the face, some coarseness of expression, some hardness, perhaps, of eye, some looseness of lip which marred its perfect beauty.

View in context

Writing generally as a man of affairs, for practical ends, he makes no attempt at elegance and is informal even to the appearance of looseness of expression.

View in context

One solid stationary point in the looseness of this gentleman's character was, that he respected and admired his sister Amy.

View in context

It made me uneasy that at such a time when he most required some right principle and purpose he should have this captivating looseness and putting-off of everything, this airy dispensing with all principle and purpose, at his elbow.

View in context