Loosen
['luːs(ə)n] or ['lusn]
Definition
(verb.) become loose or looser or less tight; 'The noose loosened'; 'the rope relaxed'.
(verb.) make loose or looser; 'loosen the tension on a rope'.
(verb.) make less dense; 'loosen the soil'.
Inputed by Brenda--From WordNet
Definition
(v. t.) To make loose; to free from tightness, tension, firmness, or fixedness; to make less dense or compact; as, to loosen a string, or a knot; to loosen a rock in the earth.
(v. t.) To free from restraint; to set at liberty..
(v. t.) To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of.
(v. i.) To become loose; to become less tight, firm, or compact.
Checked by Claudia
Synonyms and Synonymous
v. a. [1]. Slacken, relax, make loose, make less tight.[2]. Release, unloose, loose, let loose.[3]. Make lax (as the bowels).
Checker: Wade
Examples
- Gerty knelt beside her, waiting, with the patience born of experience, till this gust of misery should loosen fresh speech. Edith Wharton. The House of Mirth.
- She might as well have tried to loosen, by her soft touch, metal welded to metal. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- I put my arm behind me to loosen my pistol. Ernest Hemingway. A Farewell To Arms.
- Seeing the horses had seemed to bring this all to a head in him and seeing that Robert Jordan knew horses had seemed to loosen his tongue. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- The duties which they perform are to loosen the earth, destroy the weeds, and throw the loosened earth around the growing plant. William Henry Doolittle. Inventions in the Century.
- For God's sake don't loosen them any yet. Hemingway, Ernest. For Whom The Bell Tolls.
- I take from thy vision darkness; I loosen from thy faculties fetters! Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- The ice in the can is then loosened by warm water, and the block dumped through the door into a chute, whence it passes into the storage room below, seen in Fig. 298. Edward W. Byrn. The Progress of Invention in the Nineteenth Century.
- The man mastered himself with a violent effort, and his grim mouth loosened into a false laugh, which was more menacing than his frown. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Return of Sherlock Holmes.
- Morning broke; and the old woman saw the corpse, marked with the fatal disease, close to her; her wrist was livid with the hold loosened by death. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- As Miss Abbey helped her to turn her chair, her loosened bonnet dropped on the floor. Charles Dickens. Our Mutual Friend.
- He was taking off my shawl in the hall, and shaking the water out of my loosened hair, when Mrs. Fairfax emerged from her room. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- The soft hair whose locks were loosened she rearranged, the damp brow she refreshed with a cool, fragrant essence. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- My tongue was loosened at that. Wilkie Collins. The Moonstone.
- In these later days there is in fact, a decided loosening in the creed. Walter Lippmann. A Preface to Politics.
- The sides are then run through lime vats for the purpose of loosening the hair. Various. The Wonder Book of Knowledge.
- It may have been a signal for loosening the general tongue. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- He let her get some distance, then, loosening his limbs, he went after her. D. H. Lawrence. Women in Love .
- And now, indeed, I felt as if my last anchor were loosening its hold, and I should soon be driving with the winds and waves. Charles Dickens. Great Expectations.
- I saw him, while I was detained by the loosening of a girth, struggling with the upward path, seemingly more difficult than any we had yet passed. Mary Shelley. The Last Man.
- It seemed as if it fascinated him to see her push it up impatiently, until it tightened her soft flesh; and then to mark the loosening--the fall. Elizabeth Cleghorn Gaskell. North and South.
Editor: Simon