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From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Loose \Loose\, noun
1. Freedom from restraint. [Obs.] --Prior.
2. A letting go; discharge. --B. Jonson.
{To give a loose}, to give freedom.
Vent all its griefs, and give a loose to sorrow. --Addison.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Loose \Loose\ (l[=oo]s), v. n. [imp. & p. p. {Loosed} (l[=oo]st); p. pr. & vb. n. {Loosing}.] [From {Loose}, adjective]
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 ? --Job. xxxviii. 31.
Ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them unto me. --Matt. xxi. 2.
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. --1 Cor. vii. 27.
Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven. --Matt. xvi. 19.
3. To relax; to loosen; to make less strict.
The joints of his loins were loosed. --Dan. v. 6.
4. To solve; to interpret. [Obs.] --Spenser.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Loose \Loose\ (l[=oo]s), adjective [Compar. {Looser} (l[=oo]s"[~e]r); superl. {Loosest}.] [OE. loos, lous, laus, Icel. lauss; akin to OD. loos, D. los, AS. le['a]s false, deceitful, G. los, loose, Dan. & Sw. l["o]s, Goth. laus, and E. lose. [root]127. See {Lose}, and cf. {Leasing} falsehood.]
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. --Shak.
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 ? --Addison.
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. --Milton.
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. --Whewel.
6. Not strict in matters of morality; not rigid according to some standard of right.
The loose morality which he had learned. --Sir W. Scott.
7. Unconnected; rambling.
Vario spends whole mornings in running over loose and unconnected pages. --I. Watts.
8. Lax; not costive; having lax bowels. --Locke.
9. Dissolute; unchaste; as, a loose man or woman.
Loose ladies in delight. --Spenser.
10. Containing or consisting of obscene or unchaste language; as, a loose epistle. --Dryden.
{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.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Loose \Loose\, verb (used without an object) To set sail. [Obs.] --Acts xiii. 13.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
loose
adjective
1: not restrained or confined or attached; "a pocket full of loose bills"; "knocked the ball loose"; "got loose from his attacker"
2: not compact or dense in structure or arrangement; "loose gravel" [ant: {compact}]
3: (of a ball in sport) not in the possession or control of any player; "a loose ball"
4: not tight; not closely constrained or constricted or constricting; "loose clothing"; "the large shoes were very loose" [ant: {tight}]
5: not officially recognized or controlled; "an informal agreement"; "a loose organization of the local farmers" [syn: {informal}]
6: not literal; "a loose interpretation of what she had been told"; "a free translation of the poem" [syn: {free}, {liberal}]
7: emptying easily or excessively; "loose bowels" [syn: {lax}]
8: not affixed; "the stamp came loose" [syn: {unaffixed}] [ant: {affixed}]
9: not tense or taut; "the old man's skin hung loose and gray"; "slack and wrinkled skin"; "slack sails"; "a slack rope" [syn: {slack}]
10: (of textures) full of small openings or gaps; "an open texture"; "a loose weave" [syn: {open}]
11: not fixed firmly or tightly; "the bolts became loose over time"; "a loose chair leg"; "loose bricks"
12: lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility; "idle talk"; "a loose tongue" [syn: {idle}]
13: not carefully arranged in a package; "a box of loose nails"
14: freely producing mucus; "a loose phlegmy cough"
15: having escaped, especially from confinement; "a convict still at large"; "searching for two escaped prisoners"; "dogs loose on the streets"; "criminals on the loose in the neighborhood" [syn: {at large(p)}, {at liberty(p)}, {escaped}, {on the loose(p)}]
16: casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior; "her easy virtue"; "he was told to avoid loose (or light) women"; "wanton behavior" [syn: {easy}, {light}, {promiscuous}, {sluttish}, {wanton}]
17: not bound or fastened or gathered together; "loose pages"; "loose papers"
adverb: without restraint; "cows in India are running loose" [syn: {free}]
verb
1: grant freedom to; free from confinement [syn: {free}, {liberate}, {release}, {unloose}, {unloosen}] [ant: {confine}]
2: turn loose or free from restraint; "let loose mines"; "Loose terrible plagues upon humanity" [syn: {unleash}, {let loose}]
3: make loose or looser; "loosen the tension on a rope" [syn: {loosen}] [ant: {stiffen}]
4: become loose or looser or less tight; "The noose loosened"; "the rope relaxed" [syn: {loosen}, {relax}] [ant: {stiffen}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
467 Moby Thesaurus words for "loose": Bohemian, Paphian, abandoned, abate, absonant, adrift, affable, afloat, afoot and lighthearted, aid, aimless, aleatoric, aleatory, alleviate, amorphous, approximate, approximative, at large, at liberty, aweigh, bagging, baggy, ballooning, barbarous, bate, beat-up, bedraggled, blobby, blowzy, blurred, blurry, break loose, broad, by the way, capricious, careless, cast off, cast-off, casual, chambering, chance, chancy, chaotic, chintzy, clear, clear the way, confused, contradictory, contrary to reason, cool off, cordial, corrupt, culpably negligent, dangling, debauched, degage, deliver, derelict, desultory, detach, detached, deviative, diffuse, digressive, dilapidated, discharge, disconnected, discontinuous, discursive, disengage, disengaged, disenthrall, disjoin, disjointed, disordered, disorganized, disperse, dispersed, dissolute, doff, drabbletailed, draggled, draggletailed, drooping, droopy, ease, ease off, ease up, easy, easygoing, emancipate, emancipated, emit, episodic, erroneous, escape, escaped, excursive, expedite, explain, extravagant, facilitate, fallacious, familiar, fast, faulty, fire, flabby, flaccid, flapping, flawed, fled, flee, flimsy, floating, floppy, flowing, flown, foggy, folksy, footloose, footloose and fancy-free, free, free and easy, free as air, freeborn, freed, frowzy, frumpish, frumpy, fugitive, fuzzy, general, give out with, go-as-you-please, go-go, gracious, grease, grease the ways, grease the wheels, grubby, hanging, hasten, haymish, hazy, help along, hit-or-miss, homely, homey, ill-defined, illogical, immoderate, immoral, impotent, imprecise, improper, in disarray, in disorder, in rags, in the clear, inaccurate, inadvertent, inattentive, inauthentic, inchoate, incoherent, inconclusive, incongruous, inconsequent, inconsequential, inconsistent, inconstant, incontinent, incorrect, indecisive, indefinable, indefinite, indeterminable, indeterminate, indifferent, indistinct, indulgent, inexact, infelicitous, informal, intemperate, invalid, irrational, irregular, irrepressible, laissez-faire, lax, lenient, lessen, let down, let fly, let go, let up, lewd, liberate, liberated, libertine, licentious, light, limp, loose-moraled, loosen, lop, lop-eared, loppy, lubricate, lumpen, make clear, make way for, manumit, maundering, messy, mitigate, movable, mussy, natural, neglectful, neglecting, negligent, nodding, nonadhesive, noninterfering, nonrestrictive, nonscientific, nonspecific, not following, obscure, of easy virtue, of loose morals, off-guard, offhand, offhanded, oil, on the loose, open the way, open up, orderless, out of, out of control, out of hand, out of line, out of plumb, out of square, out of true, overindulgent, overly permissive, overpermissive, paralogical, pave the way, permissive, perverted, plain, poky, prepare the way, procrastinating, profligate, promiscuous, quicken, ragged, raggedy, rambling, rampant, random, reasonless, reckless, reinless, relax, relaxed, release, released, remiss, remit, remove, remove friction, rickety, riotous, rough, roving, rubbery, ruinous, run interference for, runaway, sagging, sagging in folds, saggy, scamping, scatter, scot-free, scraggly, seedy, self-annulling, self-contradictory, self-refuting, senseless, separate, set free, shabby, shadowed forth, shadowy, shaky, shapeless, shoddy, shoot, simple, simplify, sit back, skimping, slack, slack off, slack up, slacken, slake, slapdash, slatternly, slighting, slipshod, sloppy, slovenly, slurring, sluttish, smooth, smooth the way, soap the ways, sociable, soft, solecistic, sordid, speed, spread about, squalid, started, stochastic, streaming, swag, sweeping, tacky, take it easy, take off, tattered, unaffected, unanchored, unassuming, unattached, unauthentic, unbar, unbend, unbind, unblock, unbolt, unbound, unbrace, unbridle, unbridled, unbuckle, unbutton, uncage, unceremonious, unchain, unchained, unchaste, unchecked, uncircumspect, unclasp, unclear, unclog, uncoerced, uncommitted, uncompelled, unconfined, unconnected, unconstrained, uncontrolled, unconventional, uncurbed, undefined, undestined, undetermined, undo, undone, unengaged, unfactual, unfasten, unfastened, unfetter, unfettered, unfixed, unforced, ungag, unglue, ungoverned, ungrammatic, unguarded, unhandcuff, unhobble, uninhibited, uninvolved, unjam, unkempt, unlace, unlash, unlatch, unleash, unlock, unloose, unloosen, unmanacle, unmastered, unmeasured, unmoored, unmuzzle, unmuzzled, unneat, unofficial, unpen, unphilosophical, unpinion, unplain, unprecise, unreasonable, unreined, unrepressed, unreserved, unrestrained, unrestrictive, unrigorous, unruly, unscientific, unsecured, unshackle, unshackled, unsightly, unspecific, unspecified, unstick, unstrain, unstrap, unstring, unstuck, unstudied, unsubdued, unsuppressed, untether, untidy, untie, untied, untighten, untruss, unwary, unwatchful, unyoke, vague, veiled, vent, wandering, wanton, wayward, weak, weigh anchor, well out of, whorish, wild, without reason
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