loosen
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈluːsn̩/
Forms: form: loosens
form: loosening
form: loosened
form: loosened
Etymology: From loose + -en.
Senses: examples: text: to loosen a knot; to loosen one's grip / hold on something
text: After the Thanksgiving meal, Bill loosened his belt.
text: 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie, London: William Lee, Century 5, p. 111,
[…] after a yeares Rooting, then Shaking doth the Tree good, by Loosening of the Earth […]
text: In order to deal with deposits of soot on boiler-tubes while running, especially if poor coal is in use, locomotives are often now provided with blowers on the firebox back-plate which can be made to discharge a jet of high pressure steam towards the firebox tubeplates; this has the effect of loosening and blowing off the soot deposits.
ref: 1944 May and June, “The Why and the Wherefore: Locomotive Soot Blowers”, in Railway Magazine, page 194:
text: [...] and on the Saturday heavy seas pounded the W.R. on its exposed coastal stretch between Dawlish and Teignmouth, loosening the ballast and forcing trains to proceed with extreme caution.
ref: 1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railways and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709:
text: His days at the villa had loosened his body and freed his tenseness […]
ref: 1992, Michael Ondaatje, chapter 10, in The English Patient, London: Picador, published 1993, page 265:
synonyms: ease
relax
untighten
glosses: To make loose.
examples: text: I noticed that my seatbelt had gradually loosened during the journey.
text: The subtile shower the earth hath softned so,
And with the waues, the trees tost to and fro;
That the rootes loosen, and the tops downe sway,
So that whole Forrests quickly swimme away.
ref: 1630, Michael Drayton, “Noahs Floud”, in The Muses Elizium Lately Discouered, London: John Waterson, page 108:
text: The sea scurvy is attended with an universal putrefaction, the teeth loosen, old wounds that had been healed again open […]
ref: 1764, Oliver Goldsmith, An History of England, in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, London: J. Newbery, Volume 2, Letter 19, p. 159:
text: Max caught Bigger’s shoulders in a tight grip; then his fingers loosened and he sank back to the cot […]
ref: 1940, Richard Wright, Native Son, London: Jonathan Cape, published 1970, Book 3, p. 387:
glosses: To become loose.
examples: text: At Liberty th’ unfetter’d Captive stands,
And flings the loosen’d Shackles from his Hands.
ref: 1717, Joseph Addison, transl., Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books, translated by the most eminent hands, London: Jacob Tonson, Book 3, p. 99:
text: He easily comprehended, that the noise which he had heard was occasioned by his having loosened a chain which attached the image to its pedestal.
ref: 1796, Matthew Gregory Lewis, chapter 10, in The Monk, volume 3, London: J. Bell, page 167:
text: Her hair is drawn back under a heavy enamelled clasp. He loosens the clasp and lays it on the table.
ref: 1994, J. M. Coetzee, chapter 6, in The Master of Petersburg, New York: Viking, page 55:
synonyms: undo
unfasten
glosses: To disengage (a device that restrains).
examples: text: Immediately my Shackles loosened and fell away of themselves […]
ref: 1770, Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality, volume 5, Dublin, page 52:
glosses: To become unfastened or undone.
examples: text: This is an admirable Rule; a Painter ought to have it perpetually present in his Mind and Memory. […] it loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.
ref: 1695, Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica, London: W. Rogers, page 185:
text: […] Valancourt, willing to take a more extensive view of the enchanting country, into which they were about to descend, than he could do from a carriage, loosened his dogs, and once more bounded with them along the banks of the road.
ref: 1794, Ann Ward Radcliffe, chapter 5, in The Mysteries of Udolpho, volume 1, London: G.G. and J. Robinson, page 145:
text: I thought you had more sense than […] to suppose that because you have fallen into a very common trouble, such as most men have to go through, you are loosened from all bonds of duty […]
ref: 1876, George Eliot, Daniel Deronda, Book 1, Chapter 8:
text: The recollection loosened a throng of benumbed sensations—longings, regrets, imaginings, the throbbing brood of the only spring her heart had ever known.
ref: 1905, Edith Wharton, The House of Mirth, Book 2, Chapter 11:
synonyms: liberate
release
set free
glosses: To free from restraint; to set at liberty.
examples: text: 1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie, London: William Lee, Century 1, p. 14,
[…] Feare looseneth the Belly; because the Heat retiring inwards towards the Heart, the Gutts and other Parts are relaxed;
text: […] omitting the vehicle of water and honey, which is of a laxative power it selfe, the powder of some Loadstones in this dose doth rather constipate and binde, then purge and loosen the belly.
ref: 1646, Thomas Browne, Pseudodoxia Epidemica, London: E. Dod, Book 2, Chapter 3, p. 73:
text: When this Fruit [the guava] is eaten green it is binding, when ripe it is loosening.
ref: 1697, William Dampier, chapter 8, in A New Voyage Round the World, volume 1, London: James Knapton, page 222:
text: Trying to control his breathing and the loosening of his bowels, he crouched still lower […]
ref: 1974, Richard Adams, chapter 36, in Shardik, London: Oneworld, published 2014:
glosses: To relieve (the bowels) from constipation; to promote defecation.
examples: text: I had rather lose the battle than that sister
Should loosen him and me.
ref: c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
glosses: To create a breach or rift between (two parties).
examples: text: […] after the .iiii. day of oure arryuall in Britayne, the eightene shyps that we spake of before, which hadde the horsemen to conuey ouer, loosened from the further hauen with a soft wynd.
ref: 1565, Arthur Golding, transl., The Eyght Bookes of Caius Iulius Cæsar conteyning his martiall exploytes in the realme of Gallia and the countries bording vppon the same, London: William Seres, Book 4:
synonyms: put out
glosses: To sail away (from the shore).
Synonyms: word: loosen
word: relax
word: slacken
word: untighten
Hyponyms: word: unglue
Derived terms: loosenable
loosener
loosen one's tongue
loosen someone's lips
loosen someone's tongue
loosen the apron strings
loosen the purse strings
loosen up
overloosen
reloosen
Related terms: loose
unloosen
lose