loose

LOOSE, v.t. loos. [Gr.; Heb.]

1. To untie or unbind; to free from any fastening.

Canst thou loose the bands of Orion? Job 38.

Ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them to me. Matt. 21.

2. To relax.

The joints of his loins were loosed. Dan. 5.

3. To release from imprisonment; to liberate; to set at liberty.

The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed. Is. 51.

4. To free from obligation.

Art thou loosed from a wife? see not a wife. 1Cor. 7.

5. To free from any thing that binds or shackles; as a man loosed from lust and pelf.

6. To relieve; to free from any thing burdensome or afflictive.

Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. Luke 42.

7. To disengage; to detach; as, to loose one's hold.

8. To put off.

Loose thy shoe from off thy foot. Josh. 5.

9. To open.

Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? Rev. 5.

10. To remit; to absolve.

Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Matt. 16.

LOOSE, v.i. To set sail; to leave a port or harbor.

Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga, in Pamphylia. Acts 42.

LOOSE, a.

1. Unbound; untied; unsewed; not fastened or confined; as the loose sheets of a book.

2. Not tight or close; as a loose garment.

3. Not crowded; not close or compact.

With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array.

4. Not dense, close or compact; as a cloth or fossil of loose texture.

5. Not close; not concise; lax; as a loose and diffuse style.

6. Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as a loose way of reasoning.

7. Not strict or rigid; as a loose observance of rites.

8. Unconnected; rambling; as a loose indigested play.

Vario spends whole mornings in running over loose and unconnected pages.

9. Of lax bowels.

10. Unengaged; not attached or enslaved.

Their prevailing principle is, to sit as loose from pleasures, and be as moderate in the use of them as they can.

11. Disengaged; free from obligation; with from or of.

Now I stand loose of my vow; but who knows Cato's thought? [Little used.]

12. Wanton; unrestrained in behavior; dissolute; unchaste; as a loose man or woman.

13. Containing unchaste language; as a loose epistle.

To break loose, to escape from confinement; to gain liberty by violence.

To let loose, to free from restraint or confinement; to set at liberty.

LOOSE, n. Freedom from restraint; liberty.

Come, give thy soul a loose.

Vent all its griefs, and give a loose to sorrow.

We use this word only in the phrase, give a loose. The following use of it, "he runs with an unbounded loose," is obsolete.