Grant freedom to; free from confinement.

synonyms: free, liberate, release, unloose, unloosen.

Roget 44: be disjoined &c.; come off, fall off, come to pieces, fall to pieces; peel off; get loose.    disjoin, disconnect, disengage, disunite, dissociate, dispair^†; divorce, part, dispart^†, detach, separate, cut off, rescind, segregate; set apart, keep apart; insulate, isolate; throw out of gear; cut adrift; loose; unloose, undo, unbind, unchain, unlock etc. (fix) 43, unpack, unravel; disentangle; set free etc. (liberate) 750.    sunder, divide, subdivide, sever, dissever, abscind^†; circumcise; cut; incide^†, incise; saw, snip, nib, nip, cleave, rive, rend, slit, split, splinter, chip, crack, snap, break, tear, burst; rend &c., rend asunder, rend in twain; wrench, rupture, shatter, shiver, cranch^†, crunch, craunch^†, chop; cut up, rip up; hack, hew, slash; whittle; haggle, hackle, discind^†, lacerate, scamble^†, mangle, gash, hash, slice.    cut up, carve, dissect, anatomize; dislimb^†; take to pieces, pull to pieces, pick to pieces, tear to pieces; tear to tatters, tear piecemeal, tear limb from limb; divellicate^†; skin etc. 226; disintegrate, dismember, disbranch^†, disband; disperse etc. 73; dislocate, disjoint; break up; mince; comminute etc. (pulverize) 330; apportion etc. 786.    part, part company; separate, leave.    ... show more

Roget 750: liberate, free; set free, set clear, set at liberty; render free, emancipate, release; enfranchise, affranchise^†; manumit; enlarge; disband, discharge, disenthrall, disenthral, dismiss; let go, let loose, loose, let out, let slip; cast adrift, turn adrift; deliver etc. 672; absolve etc. (acquit) 970.    unfetter etc. 751, untie etc. 43; loose etc. (disjoin) 44; loosen, relax; unbolt, unbar, unclose, uncork, unclog, unhand, unbind, unchain, unharness, unleash; disengage, disentangle; clear, extricate, unloose.    gain one's liberty, obtain one's liberty, acquire one's liberty etc. 748; get rid of, get clear of; deliver oneself from; shake off the yoke, slip the collar; break loose, break prison; tear asunder one's bonds, cast off trammels; escape etc. 671.    ... show more

Turn loose or free from restraint:
— Let loose mines.
— Loose terrible plagues upon humanity.

synonyms: let loose, unleash.

Dutch: loslaten

Make loose or looser:
— Loosen the tension on a rope.

synonym: loosen.

Become loose or looser or less tight:
— The noose loosened.

synonyms: loosen, relax.

Dutch: ruim

Not compact or dense in structure or arrangement.

Roget 214: pendent, pendulous; pensile; hanging etc. v.; beetling, jutting over, overhanging, projecting; dependent; suspended etc. v.; loose, flowing.    having a peduncle etc. n.; pedunculate^†, tailed, caudate.    ... show more

Roget 279: deviating etc. v.; aberrant, errant; excursive, discursive; devious, desultory, loose; rambling; stray, erratic, vagrant, undirected, circuitous, indirect, zigzag; crab-like.    ... show more

Roget 573: diffuse, profuse; wordy, verbose, largiloquent^†, copious, exuberant, pleonastic, lengthy; longsome^†, long-winded, longspun^†, long drawn out; spun out, protracted, prolix, prosing, maundering; circumlocutory, periphrastic, ambagious^†, roundabout; digressive; discursive, excursive; loose; rambling episodic; flatulent, frothy.    ... show more

Roget 519: unintelligible, unaccountable, undecipherable, undiscoverable, unknowable, unfathomable; incognizable^†, inexplicable, inscrutable; inapprehensible^†, incomprehensible; insolvable^†, insoluble; impenetrable.    illegible, as Greek to one, unexplained, paradoxical; enigmatic, enigmatical, puzzling (secret) 533; indecipherable.    obscure, dark, muddy, clear as mud, seen through a mist, dim, nebulous, shrouded in mystery; opaque, dense; undiscernible etc. (invisible) 447^†; misty etc. (opaque) 426; hidden etc. 528; latent etc. 526.    indefinite, garbled etc. (indistinct) 447; perplexed etc. (confused) 59; undetermined, vague, loose, ambiguous; mysterious; mystic, mystical; acroamatic^†, acroamatical^†; metempirical; transcendental; occult, recondite, abstruse, crabbed.    inconceivable, inconceptible^†; searchless^†; above comprehension, beyond comprehension, past comprehension; beyond one's depth; unconceived.    inexpressible, undefinable, incommunicable.    unpredictable, unforeseeable.    ... show more

Roget 477: intuitive, instinctive, impulsive; independent of reason, anterior to reason; gratuitous, hazarded; unconnected.    unreasonable, illogical, false, unsound, invalid; unwarranted, not following; inconsequent, inconsequential; inconsistent; absonous^†, absonant^†; unscientific; untenable, inconclusive, incorrect; fallacious, fallible; groundless, unproved; non sequitur [Lat.], it does not follow.    deceptive, sophistical, jesuitical; illusive, illusory; specious, hollow, plausible, ad captandum [Lat.], evasive; irrelevant etc. 10.    weak, feeble, poor, flimsy, loose, vague.    irrational; nonsensical etc. (absurd) 497.    foolish etc. (imbecile) 499; frivolous, pettifogging, quibbling; finespun^†, overrefined^†.    at the end of one's tether, au bout de son latin.    ... show more

Polish: sypki

Not tight; not closely constrained or constricted or constricting.

Polish: szeroki, luźny, nieobcisły, obszerny

Not affixed:
— The stamp came loose.

synonym: unaffixed.

of a ball in sport Not in the possession or control of any player.

Not officially recognized or controlled:
— A loose organization of the local farmers.

synonym: informal.

Not literal:
— A loose interpretation of what she had been told.

synonyms: free, liberal.

Roget 44: disjoined etc. v.; discontinuous etc. 70; multipartite^†, abstract; disjunctive; secant; isolated etc. v.; insular, separate, disparate, discrete, apart, asunder, far between, loose, free; unattached, unannexed, unassociated, unconnected; distinct; adrift; straggling; rift, reft^†.    [capable of being cut] scissile [Chem], divisible, discerptible^†, partible, separable.    ... show more

Emptying easily or excessively:
— Loose bowels.

synonym: lax.

Roget 47: nonadhesive, immiscible; incoherent, detached, loose, baggy, slack, lax, relaxed, flapping, streaming; disheveled; segregated, like grains of sand unconsolidated etc. 231, uncombined etc. 48; noncohesive^†.    ... show more

Roget 738: lax, loose; slack; remiss etc. (careless) 460; weak.    relaxed; licensed; reinless^†, unbridled; anarchical; unauthorized etc. (unwarranted) 925; adespotic^†.    ... show more

Roget 575: feeble, bald, tame, meager, jejune, vapid, bland, trashy, lukewarm, cold, frigid, poor, dull, dry, languid; colorless, enervated; proposing, prosy, prosaic; unvaried, monotonous, weak, washy, wishy-washy; sketchy, slight.    careless, slovenly, loose, lax (negligent) 460; slipshod, slipslop^†; inexact; puerile, childish; flatulent; rambling etc. (diffuse) 573.    ... show more

Not tense or taut:
— The old man's skin hung loose and grey.

synonym: slack.

of textures Full of small openings or gaps:
— A loose weave.

synonym: open.

Polish: rzadki

Lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility:
— A loose tongue.

synonym: idle.

Polish: pusty, jałowy

Not carefully arranged in a package.

Having escaped, especially from confinement:
— Dogs loose on the streets.
— Criminals on the loose in the neighborhood.

synonyms: at large, escaped, on the loose.

Roget 748: free, free as air; out of harness, independent, at large, loose, scot-free; left alone, left to oneself.    in full swing; uncaught, unconstrained, unbuttoned, unconfined, unrestrained, unchecked, unprevented^†, unhindered, unobstructed, unbound, uncontrolled, untrammeled.    unsubject^†, ungoverned, unenslaved^†, unenthralled^†, unchained, unshackled, unfettered, unreined^†, unbridled, uncurbed, unmuzzled.    unrestricted, unlimited, unmitigated, unconditional; absolute; discretionary etc. (optional) 600.    unassailed, unforced, uncompelled.    unbiassed^†, spontaneous.    free and easy; at ease, at one's ease; degage [Fr.], quite at home; wanton, rampant, irrepressible, unvanquished^†.    exempt; freed etc. 750; freeborn; autonomous, freehold, allodial^†; gratis etc. 815; eleutherian^†.    unclaimed, going a begging.    ... show more

Casual and unrestrained in sexual behavior:
— He was told to avoid loose (or light) women.

synonyms: easy, light, promiscuous, sluttish, wanton.

Roget 961: impure; unclean etc. (dirty) 653; not to be mentioned to ears polite; immodest, shameless; indecorous, indelicate, indecent; Fescennine; loose, risque [Fr.], coarse, gross, broad, free, equivocal, smutty, fulsome, ribald, obscene, bawdy, pornographic.    concupiscent, prurient, lickerish^†, rampant, lustful; carnal, carnal-minded; lewd, lascivious, lecherous, libidinous, erotic, ruttish, salacious; Paphian; voluptuous; goatish, must, musty.    unchaste, light, wanton, licentious, debauched, dissolute; of loose character, of easy virtue; frail, gay, riggish^†, incontinent, meretricious, rakish, gallant, dissipated; no better than she should be; on the town, on the streets, on the pave, on the loose.    adulterous, incestuous, bestial.    ... show more

Polish: rozwiązły, lubieżny, rozpustny

Without restraint:
— Cows in India are running loose.

synonym: free.