Library / English Dictionary

LOOSEN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Become loose or looser or less tight

Example:

the rope relaxed

Synonyms:

loose; loosen; relax

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "loosen" is one way to...):

weaken (become weaker)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s
Somebody ----s

Antonym:

stiffen (become stiff or stiffer)

Derivation:

loosening (the act of making something less tight)

loosening (an occurrence of control or strength weakening)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make loose or looser

Example:

loosen the tension on a rope

Synonyms:

loose; loosen

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "loosen" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Cause:

loose; loosen; relax (become loose or looser or less tight)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "loosen"):

relax; unbend (make less taut)

remit; slacken (make slack as by lessening tension or firmness)

slack (release tension on)

unscrew (loosen something by unscrewing it)

unscrew (loosen by turning)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Antonym:

stiffen (make stiff or stiffer)

Derivation:

loosening (the act of making something less tight)

loosening (an occurrence of control or strength weakening)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Make less dense

Example:

loosen the soil

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "loosen" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "loosen"):

scarify (break up)

fluff; ruffle (erect or fluff up)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Cause to become loose

Example:

loosen the necktie

Synonyms:

loosen; undo; untie

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "loosen" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

loosening (the act of making something less tight)

Sense 5

Meaning:

Disentangle and raise the fibers of

Example:

tease wool

Synonyms:

loosen; tease; tease apart

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "loosen" is one way to...):

disentangle; straighten out; unsnarl (extricate from entanglement)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Sense 6

Meaning:

Become less severe or strict

Example:

The rules relaxed after the new director arrived

Synonyms:

loosen; relax

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "loosen" is one way to...):

change (undergo a change; become different in essence; losing one's or its original nature)

Verb group:

loosen; relax (make less severe or strict)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s

Sense 7

Meaning:

Make less severe or strict

Example:

The government relaxed the curfew after most of the rebels were caught

Synonyms:

loosen; relax

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "loosen" is one way to...):

alter; change; modify (cause to change; make different; cause a transformation)

Verb group:

loosen; relax (become less severe or strict)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

And the women and children, from above, shall loosen the great rocks and hurl them down upon them.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

The faster spin rate loosened chunks of material, which are drifting off into space.

(Hubble Takes Close-up Look at Disintegrating Comet, NASA)

It is characterized by loss of elasticity resulting in loosening and folding of the skin.

(Cutis Laxa, NCI Thesaurus)

Miss Dartle suddenly kneeled down before it, and began to loosen the dress.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Everybody acknowledged Buck a magnificent animal, but twenty fifty-pound sacks of flour bulked too large in their eyes for them to loosen their pouch-strings.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

He cleared the hilt of his cutlass and loosened the blade in the sheath; and all the time we were waiting there he kept swallowing as if he felt what we used to call a lump in the throat.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

When he saw the convict approaching him with the bloody knife in his hand he kicked off his bonds, which he had somehow contrived to loosen, and rushing down the deck he plunged into the after-hold.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They have a kind of tree, which at forty years old loosens in the root, and falls with the first storm: it grows very straight, and being pointed like stakes with a sharp stone (for the Houyhnhnms know not the use of iron), they stick them erect in the ground, about ten inches asunder, and then weave in oat straw, or sometimes wattles, between them.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

At first there is a sort of negative condition, as if some tie were loosened, and then the absolute freedom quickly follows; when, however, the freedom ceases the change-back or relapse comes quickly, preceded only by a spell of warning silence.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There are lots of different cold and cough medicines, and they do different things.: • Nasal decongestants - unclog a stuffy nose • Cough suppressants - quiet a cough • Expectorants - loosen mucus so you can cough it up • Antihistamines - stop runny noses and sneezing • Pain relievers - ease fever, headaches, and minor aches and pains

(Cold and Cough Medicines, Food and Drug Administration)