loose

ENEnglish
//luːs//

Direct German Translations & Equivalents:

Click any term below to jump straight to its full vocabulary entry in German:

Verb Conjugation Tables & Inflections

Key Verb Forms & Inflections
Third-person singular (he/she/it):looses
Present Participle (-ing):loosing
Past Participle:loosed
Simple Past:loosed

Definitions & Usage

verb
#1

(transitive) To let loose, to free from restraints.

Translations:[DE]lösen
verb
#2

(transitive) To unfasten, to loosen.

Translations:[DE]lösen
verb
#3

(transitive) To make less tight, to loosen.

Translations:[DE]lockern
verb
#4

(intransitive) Of a grip or hold, to let go.

Translations:[DE]loslassen
verb
#5

(archery) To shoot (an arrow).

Translations:
verb
#6

(obsolete) To set sail.

verb
#7

(obsolete) To solve; to interpret.

adjective
#8

Not fixed in place tightly or firmly.

Example: This wheelbarrow has a loose wheel.
adjective
#9

Not held or packaged together.

Example: You can buy apples in a pack, but they are cheaper loose.
adjective
#10

Not under control.

Example: The dog is loose again.
adjective
#11

Not fitting closely.

Example: I wear loose clothes when it is hot.
adjective
#12

Not compact.

Example: It is difficult walking on loose gravel.
Example: a cloth of loose texture
Translations:
adjective
#13

Relaxed.

Example: She danced with a loose flowing movement.
Translations:[DE]entspannt
adjective
#14

Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate.

Example: a loose way of reasoning
adjective
#15

Indiscreet.

Example: Loose talk costs lives.
adjective
#16

(somewhat dated) Free from moral restraint; immoral, unchaste.

adjective
#17

(not comparable, sports) Not being in the possession of any competing team during a game.

Example: He caught an elbow going after a loose ball.
Example: The puck was momentarily loose right in front of the net.
adjective
#18

(dated) Not costive; having lax bowels.

adjective
#19

(of volumes of materials) Measured loosely stacked or disorganized (such as of firewood).

adjective
#20

(US, slang, motor racing, of a stock car) Having oversteer.

noun
#21

(archery) The release of an arrow.

noun
#22

(obsolete) A state of laxity or indulgence; unrestrained freedom, abandonment.

noun
#23

(rugby) All play other than set pieces (scrums and line-outs).

noun
#24

Freedom from restraint.

noun
#25

A letting go; discharge.

interjection
#26

(archery) begin shooting; release your arrows

Translations:
verb
#27

Obsolete form of lose.

verb
#28

Misspelling of lose.

Example: I'm going to loose this game.

Notable Literary & Historical Quotes

Ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them unto me.

1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 21:2:

And it was Thora, the little Dwarf's wife, The five rune-books she took out; So she loosed him fully out of the runes, Her daughter had bound him about.

1828, Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology, volume I, London: William Harrison Ainsworth, page 167:

"Ay, and one was nigh to being slain by the hot-pot to be eaten of those brutes, thy children, and had not the others fought gallantly they too had been slain, and not even I could have called back the life which had been loosed from the body."

1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:

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