loosely (English) - Vocabulary & GRE App

EN • English

//ˈluːsli//

adverb

In a loose manner.

Translations:

adverb

Not tightly.

Example: “Insert all the bolts loosely, then tighten them.”

Translations:

adverb

Approximately.

Example: “It's red, to use the term loosely, sort of brown and sort of orange, let's call it reddish.”

Example: “a comic loosely based on an Old Norse epic”

Synonyms:

adverb

Used to indicate an imprecise use of words; short for loosely speaking

Example: “A whale is, loosely, maybe very loosely, a fish.”

Translations:

“Then she fell back on the altar and her fingers dangled loosely on its edge, her feet uncrossed and lay beside each other.”

— 1965, Attila Zohar, Kings Cross Black Magic, Sydney: Horwitz Publications, page 32:

“It was an April Fool hoax, of course. 31200 had been rigged up with a single lightweight wooden [name] plate (loosely held on by Blu Tack).”

— 2024 January 10, Chris Gilson, “RAIL's famous five...”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 27:

“It is loosely adapted by John Hodge from Irvine Welsh’s novel Porno which imagined them coming together again 10 years on; this of course is 20.”

— 2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in The Guardian: