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What is "loosen"

Crossword clues for loosen

loosen
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
loosen
verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
break/loosen the stranglehold of sb (=stop someone having complete control)
loosen a knot (=make it less tight)
▪ Mr Benson loosened the knot in his tie.
loosen/relax your grip (=hold something less tightly)
▪ Lee loosened his grip on the dog’s collar.
loosen/relax your hold
▪ Laughing, he loosened his hold until she could pull her arms free.
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
up
▪ I started to like it more when we loosened up and it got less serious.
▪ Around me, he loosens up.
▪ How do I get her to let Loosen up?
▪ On Friday night, he cited several things that had helped him loosen up.
▪ Why couldn't the guy loosen up?
▪ This process will help you channel your thoughts, work out your ideas, and loosen up for the actual writing.
▪ From 1987, as in church affairs, controls were slowly loosening up in the arts and the professions.
■ NOUN
collar
▪ Later still hands loosened her collar.
▪ Harry felt stiflingly hot, choking almost, as he loosened his collar.
▪ He loosened his collar, attempted to put a ruler between his teeth, and failed.
▪ I loosened my shirt collar and watched a couple of generals being saluted by their chauffeurs.
▪ She hurried over to him and loosened his collar.
control
▪ None has loosened criminal control, though crooked operators are periodically sent to jail.
▪ The result has been some unbundling, loosening and decentralizing of control in some societies and in some organizations on some tasks.
▪ I felt a need to drink, to further loosen my control center, and I did.
▪ The difficulty this offered Franco was that, to his authoritarian mentality, loosening control was synonymous with losing it.
grip
▪ But whenever he wandered off el grip would loosen, el thwing would revert and the comfortable old mongrel ways would return.
▪ Although she was silent, the grip didn't loosen.
hold
▪ Culley waited for the spasm to pass, and loosened his hold a fraction.
▪ It was on a block where he encountered three soldiers that he began to loosen his hold on the sequence.
▪ It will be intriguing to see how Brecht's play stands up at a time when Communism is loosening its ideological hold.
knot
▪ He loosened the tight knot round his throat.
purse
▪ The business leaders wanted the state to loosen its purse strings and give the schools' budgets a healthy boost.
▪ All these issues add up to political fire works on Capitol Hill before Congress loosens its purse strings.
string
▪ The business leaders wanted the state to loosen its purse strings and give the schools' budgets a healthy boost.
▪ All these issues add up to political fire works on Capitol Hill before Congress loosens its purse strings.
tie
▪ He had loosened his tie and undone the top button of his shirt.
▪ Then taking off his tunic and loosening his tie, he picked up the telephone.
▪ He loosened his tie with his free hand.
▪ Her hand was loosening his tie, his was sliding up the tingling curve of her thigh.
▪ Omar said, loosening his tie.
▪ They loosen their ties and slouch against the wall with hands in pockets in manufactured nonchalance.
▪ The Chancellor had loosened his tie and was breathing heavily.
tongue
▪ A few coppers would be enough to loosen her tongue.
▪ Zeal for a cause dissolved his timidity and loosened his tongue.
■ VERB
begin
▪ I began to loosen my armour.
▪ It was on a block where he encountered three soldiers that he began to loosen his hold on the sequence.
▪ As the freighter slammed back down, the solid rock above began to loosen, huge boulders crashing into the decks.
▪ But among those in the forest, the hold of the militia has begun to loosen after two months of hardship.
▪ His muscles creaked as the tension began to loosen.
try
▪ They tried to loosen them but failed.
want
▪ The business leaders wanted the state to loosen its purse strings and give the schools' budgets a healthy boost.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
loosen sb's tongue
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Loosen any tight clothing, and lay the patient on his side.
▪ After the meal we all had to loosen our belts.
▪ Bill loosened his tie and lit a cigarette.
▪ Carter took off his jacket and loosened his tie.
▪ Congress has loosened some of the restrictions on immigration.
▪ Could you loosen this lid for me?
▪ Eric leaned back in his chair and loosened his belt.
▪ He grasped one of the mules and began to loosen the hitch that held its load.
▪ He took a screwdriver from his pocket and began loosening the screws that secured the steel bars to the window frame.
▪ I'd eaten so much that I had to loosen my belt.
▪ When the policeman loosened his grip, Biff ran away.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A comrade loosened his grasp, and his faithful gray stood quietly...
▪ But presently the crowd loosened into smaller groups and a good many people went off into the village or set off for outlying farms.
▪ Claire used to try to get her to loosen up over a drink.
▪ Finally, he decides to unbuckle his belt, loosen his pants, sit back and relax.
▪ He regained his sight after treatment with ointment, which eventually loosened the glue.
▪ Major's attachment to free market doctrine has been loosened by the public's refusal to let short-termism shut Britain's pits.
▪ These are good characteristics, but you need to loosen up a little.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Loosen

Loosen \Loos"en\ (l[=oo]s"'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Loosened (l[=oo]s"'nd); p. pr. & vb. n. Loosening.] [See Loose, v. t.]

  1. 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.

    After a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree good by loosening of the earth.
    --Bacon.

  2. To free from restraint; to set at liberty..

    It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.
    --Dryden.

  3. To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of.
    --Bacon.

Loosen

Loosen \Loos"en\, v. i. To become loose; to become less tight, firm, or compact.
--S. Sharp.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
loosen

late 14c., losnen, later lousen (early 15c.), from loose (v.) + -en (1). Related: Loosened; loosening.

Wiktionary
loosen

vb. 1 To make loose. 2 To free from restraint; to set at liberty. 3 To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of.

Related phrases:
WordNet
loosen

  1. v. make loose or looser; "loosen the tension on a rope" [syn: loose] [ant: stiffen]

  2. make less severe or strict; "The government relaxed the curfew after most of the rebels were caught" [syn: relax]

  3. become less severe or strict; "The rules relaxed after the new director arrived" [syn: relax]

  4. disentangle and raise the fibers of; "tease wool" [syn: tease, tease apart]

  5. cause to become loose; "undo the shoelace"; "untie the knot"; "loosen the necktie" [syn: untie, undo]

  6. make less dense; "loosen the soil"

  7. become loose or looser or less tight; "The noose loosened"; "the rope relaxed" [syn: relax, loose] [ant: stiffen]

Related phrases:

Usage examples of "loosen".

In it sat the woman, her hair loosened and aflow now, and so golden red as to be orange.

He was close to the limit at which he could hold the hardened air barrier around Alborak, and if he loosened that barrier, the white wizard would escape.

He also loosened the rules governing authorization for investigations and their duration.

Bit by bit, loosened molecule by loosened molecule, in accordance with the patient, relentless laws of chemistry, the sinew slowly dissolved, weakening the bond which held the compressed, contorted, sharpened baleen, until the slender bond broke.

The ranks had loosened in this madness so the valley seemed filled with big men on big horses, the sunlight catching their swords, the brass-plated straps of the bicornes, and the gleaming hooves that drove them on.

The sun felt good on his back and he knew the red colt liked it too, for Bonfire neighed repeatedly while Tom jogged him the wrong way around the track, loosening him up.

The monk came to my aid, and by dint of driving the bar between the gutter and the lead I succeeded in loosening it, and then, heaving at it with our shoulders, we beat it up till the opening was wide enough.

No grease is ever allowed to foul the gasoline, no sludge to find its way into the carb, no bolt to loosen on the driveshaft.

The contraction of the concrete, firmly bedded around the flanges of the iron, and showing cracks at fairly uniform intervals, probably localized the small corresponding movements of the iron near the concrete cracks, and resulted in a loosening of the caulking at these points.

Fortunately, both chocks could be reached from his side, and he did not have to crawl under the car to loosen them.

When any of the silly young clunches in my regiment locked up their knees while at attention and keeled over, loosening their collars was always one of the first things I did.

When the day came, I thought all things in this world were loosened from their hold, and that the sure and steadfast earth itself was grown coggly beneath my feet, as I mounted the pulpit.

There was no doubt that Cokey would sing eventually, if he had any music to give out, but there was also no doubt that he would take quite a little loosening up.

The expectorated matter is at first whitish, opaque, and tenacious, mixed sometimes with a frothy mucus, requiring considerable coughing to loosen it and throw it off.

She had seen glances hot with wine and lust, claspings of hands, loosened cyclas, and more lascivious reclinings.