Crossword clues for loosening
The Collaborative International Dictionary
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.]
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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. -
To free from restraint; to set at liberty..
It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.
--Dryden. To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of.
--Bacon.
Wiktionary
n. The act of making something looser. vb. (present participle of loosen English)
WordNet
n. an occurrence of control or strength weakening; "the relaxation of requirements"; "the loosening of his grip"; "the slackening of the wind" [syn: relaxation, slackening]
the act of making something less tight [syn: laxation] [ant: tightening]
Usage examples of "loosening".
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.
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.
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.
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.
On the 8th of October he wrote to say that he had passed the whole night in working at the partition wall, and had only succeeded in loosening one brick.
She was the best ship he had ever flown, a cruiser built for battle, quick and responsive to the tack of her ambient-light sails and the tightening and loosening of her radian draws.
Falconer used his sword to hack at the turf, loosening clods which Tirtha broke away and piled to one side.
He took the other, tying triple knots in the thong that held his burse to his belt, loosening his jerkin, swinging his booted feet onto the hard, thin mattress, and pulling up a blanket of surprisingly soft merino.
Ile serviceman began loosening more cement, exposing more of the concealed pipe within the wall.
His long left arm uncoupled like the loosening of the weight of a pile-driver.
By good fortune the next day was one of those fine unseasonable March days especially made for the loosening of the bands of ice that bind our Maine fields and streams.
The explanations suggested were that he had made himself very popular at Rome and that his appointment was therefore calculated to strengthen the loosening bonds of the Triple Alliance, and also that his early close association with Bismarck would ensure the maintenance of the Bismarckian tradition.
Raymond Horgan, he exhibited monumental strength in reforming the office and especially in loosening the grip of the Police Force, with its political crosscurrents, over prosecutions.
Two of my littermates died in the fighting, and when the third was too severely wounded to ride, his men cut his throat to prevent the Dales hags from loosening his tongue by magic.