loose 
I have shewn In a former Paper with how much Care 
I have avoided all such Thoughts as are loose, obscene, or 
Immoral. AitUton, spectator, No. 262. 
Their subjects run . . . from the most solemn mysteries 
of religion to the loosest frolics of common life. 
Ticknor, Span. Lit., II. -M\. 
9f. Disengaged; free; independent: with from 
or /'. 
Now I stand 
Loose of my vow ; but who knows Cato's thoughts? 
Addmon, <'ato. 
Their prevailing principle Is to sit as loose from plea- 
sures, and be as moderate In the use of them, as they can. 
Atierbury. 
10f. Seemingly communicative ; frank; open; 
candid. 
Your thoughts close and your countenance loose will go 
safely over the world. Leiyh (Arbor's Eng. Garner, I. OtS). 
A loose fish. See/8/ii,n. At loose ends. See end. 
Fast and loose. See /ourfi . Loose color, a color that is 
not permanent; a fugitive color; specifically, In dyeiny, 
a. ul. >r which will not resist the various destructive agents, 
as light, air, soap, dilute acids and alkalis, to which it may 
be naturally subjected. Loose herding. See herding. 
Loose In the naftt. See A/(i. Loose pulley, sen- 
tence, etc. See the nouns. To break loose, cut loose, 
let loose, etc. See the verbs. To shake a loose leg. 
See ley. 
II. . It. Freedom from restraint ; license. 
[Still used in a common phrase. See to give a 
loose, below.] 
He [Pegasus] runs with an unbounded loose. 
Prior, Carmen Seculare for 1700, xvl. 
2. The act of letting go or letting fly; dis- 
charge; shot. 
In throwing a dart or javelin we force back our arms, 
to make our loose the stronger. B. Jonson. 
Surely the poet gives a twang to the loose of his arrow, 
making him [Robin Hood] shoot one a cloth-yard long at 
full forty-score mark. 
Fuller, Worthies, II. 569 (Proverbs). 
Merely to straighten the fingers and let the string go 
free will give a clumsy, sluggish loose. 
if. and W. Thompson, Archery, p. 20. 
3f. A solution of a problem or explanation of 
a difficulty. 
You shall see them flnd out pretty looses In the conclu- 
sion, but are no ways able to examine or debate matters. 
Bacon, Cunning (ed. 1887). 
4. The privilege of turning out cattle on com- 
mons. [North. Eng.] To give a loose, or to give 
loose, to give free vent : give a loose reiii. 
Several of the French, Italian, and English Poets have 
given a loose to their Imaginations In the Description of 
Angels. . Addison, Spectator, No. 327. 
Our Manners were formed from our different Fortunes, 
not our different Age. Wealths/area Loose to your Youth, 
and Poverty put a Restraint upon mine. 
Steele, Conscious Lovers, i. 1. 
loose (16s), r.; pret. and pp. loosed, ppr. loosing. 
[Early mod. E. also lousej lotcse, lease; < ME. 
lousen (a var., after the adj., of losen, lose, < AS. 
losian), mixed with the different but related verb 
lesen, < AS. lesan, lysan = OS. losjan, loson = 
D. lossen = MLG. losen = OHG. losjan, losan, 
loson, MHG. losen, G. losen = Icel. leysa = Sw. 
liisa = Dan. lose = Goth, lausjan, loose; from the 
adj.. AS. leds, etc., loose: see loose, a., and cf. 
/osc 1 .] I. trans. 1. To make loose or free ; re- 
lease from that which restrains, confines, or 
hampers; set at liberty; disengage; discharge 
from constraint, obligation, or penalty. 
Have pity on me, as I had upon thee, 
Whan I lows'd ye out o' prison strang. 
The Provost's Dochter (Child's Ballads, IV. 293). 
Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in 
heaven. Mat. xvi. 19. 
Woman, thou art loosed from thine Infirmity. 
Luke xiii. 12. 
As many arrows, loosed several ways, 
Come to one mark. Shale., Hen. V., L 2. 207. 
I heard the famous singer Cifaccio. . . . His holding 
out and delicateness in extending and looseiny a note with 
incomparable softnesse and sweetnesse was admirable. 
Evelyn, Diary, April 19, 1687. 
2. To disengage the hold of; undo; unfasten; 
untie. 
Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals 
thereof? Rev. v. 2. 
Whoever bound him, I will loose his bonds. 
SAo*., C. of E., v. 1. 389. 
We differ farder, and the knot harder to louse, for nether 
sydc wantes sum reason. 
A. Hume, Orthographie (E. E. T. S.), p. 9. 
3. To relax ; loosen ; make or let loose, par- 
tially or wholly: as, to loose sail ; to loose one's 
hold or grasp. 
The joints of his loins were loosed, and his knees smote 
one against another. ! 'an. v. 0. 
4f. To solve; explain. 
He had red her Riddle, which no wight 
Could ever loose but suffred deadly doole. 
Spenser, F. Q., V. xi. 25. 
3517 
To loose sail, to unfurl sail by casting off the gaskets. 
- Syn. To unfasten, let go, detach, disconnect, absolve, 
aeiinit. 
II. intrnii.t. To perform the act of loosening ; 
m;iko or set loose something; let go a hold, un- 
moor a ship, shoot an arrow, or the like. 
I spyed hym behynde a tree redy to lotne at me with a 
crosbowe. I'alsyraee. 
Now, when Paul and his company looted from I'aphos, 
they came to Perga, in I'amphylia. Acts xiii. 13. 
Nor must he look at what or whom to strike. 
But loose at all ; each mark must be alike. 
H. JuiuHin, Sejanus, UL 3. 
loose-bodied (los'bod'id), . If. Of loose hab- 
ils. 
Be wise, and take heed of him ; he's giddy-headed, and 
loose bodied. Shirley, Love Tricks, 1L 1. 
2. Not fitted to the figure ; flowing. 
Imprimis, a loose-bodied gown. 
Shale., T. of the 8., iv. S. 185. 
loose-box (I6s'boks), n. A stable, or more com- 
monly an inclosed part of a stable, without 
stalls, for the accommodation of unhaltered 
horses. 
The pony in the loose-box in the corner. 
Dickens, Bleak House, vii. 
loose-house (los'hous), . Same as loose-box. 
loose-kirtle (loVker'tl), n. A woman of loose 
character ; a wanton. Kingsley. [Rare.] 
loosely (los'li), adv. [= D. losselijk = MLG. 
tosliken = MHG. loslichc, lonliche = Icel. laus- 
liga = Sw. losligen, lo'sligt = Dan. loselig; as 
loose, a., + -fy 2 .] 1. In a loose manner; not 
firmly or tightly: as, loosely corded or strapped. 
Her golden locks for haste were loosely shed 
About her ears. Spenser, F. Q. 
Hence 2. Freely; negligently; carelessly; 
without precision: as, to speak loosely; a loosely 
conducted enterprise. 
Part loosely wing the region. Milton, P. L, vii. 425. 
A prince should not be so loosely studied as to remember 
so weak a composition. Shalt., 2 Hen. IV., it 2. 9. 
I imagine our Bible Is the most loosely read, least under- 
stood of any book in the English tongue. 
Alcolt, Tablets, p. 142. 
The importance of time, even In a war as loosely con- 
ducted ... as that of the Rebellion, has no better Illus- 
tration than In the case of the Monitor. 
,i. R. Soley, Blockade and Cruisers, p. 236. 
So, to speak loosely and generally, the Lancastrian rule 
was a direct continuity, and the Yorkist rule was a break 
in the continuity, of constitutional development. 
Stubbs, Const. Hist., i 373. 
3. Immorally, wantonly; dissolutely. 
A bishop, living loosely, was charged that his conversa- 
tion was not according to the apostles' lives. Camden. 
loosen (16'sn), v. [= Dan. losne; as loose, a., 
+ -en 1 . Cf. loose, e.] I. trans. 1. To make 
loose ; free from tightness, tension, firmness, or 
fixedness: as, to loosen a knot; to loosen a joint; 
to loosen a rock in the earth. 2. To render less 
dense or compact: as, to loosen the soil about 
the roots of a plant. 
The cause of this was nothing but the loosening of the 
earth, which comforteth any tree. 
Bacon, Nat Hist., t 435. 
3. To let loose ; free from restraint or confine- 
ment. 
While you, with loosen'd sails and vows, prepare 
To seek a land that flies the searcher's care. 
Dryden, tr. of Ovid s Epistles, vilL 
Breathe into the many-folded shell, 
Loosening Its mighty music. 
Shelley, Prometheus Unbound, lii. 3. 
From his girth 
The dread scroll loosened fell to earth. 
William Morris, Earthly Paradise, III. 203. 
To loosen a COUgh, to relieve the affected parts from a 
sense of constriction ; promote expectoration. To loosen 
the bowels, to relieve them from costlveness. 
II. intrans. To become loose; become less 
tight, firm, or compact. 
loosener (los'ner), n. 1. One who loosens. 
2. That which loosens ; a laxative. 
It wrought neither as an astringent or as a loosener; nor 
like opium, or bark, or mercury. 
Sterne, Tristram Shandy, IX. nrv. (19). 
looseness (los'nes), . 1. The state of being 
loose or relaxed; laxness of attachment, ad- 
justment, connection, or coherence: as, the 
looseness of a cord or a vein; looseness of the 
skin, of earth, or of the texture of cloth ; loose- 
ness of expression or of reasoning. 
To the conversational education of the Athenians I am 
inclined to attribute the great looseness of reasoning which 
is remarkable In most of their scientific writings. 
Macaulay, Athenian Orators. 
2. Irregularity; instability; habitual devia- 
tion from rules; as applied to conduct, laxity; 
immorality; disorder. 
lop 
When the people slacken, and fall to lootrnes. and riot, 
then doe they as much as If they laid downe their necks 
for some wily Tyrant to get up and i -ide 
Milton, Kefipiination In Eng., II. 
3. Flux from the bowels; diarrhea, 
loosening-bar (Uis'ning-bar), . See bar 1 . 
loosestrife (ISs'strif), n. [< loose, v., + obj. 
xlnfi ; translating the Gr. name ^.vai/Mria, /iiwi- 
* ",.%*- 
i, loose- 
strife: see Ly- 
si/inif/iiii.} In 
hot., the Eng- 
lish popular 
name of sev- 
eral species of 
plants, chiefly 
of the genera 
Lysimachiaaitd 
Lythrum. 
Along the Wall- 
kill the spiked 
loosestrife, a tall, 
downy weed, with 
large, purple flow- 
ers, has long been 
common. 
J. Burroughs, 
[The Century, 
[XX. 99. 
Common loose- 
strife, Lytitna- 
chia wlyaris or 
Lythrum Salica- 
ria. (Great Britain.] False loosestrife, a plant of the 
genus Ludirigia. Qolden or yellow loosestrife, Lyri- 
machia mtlyaris. Purple or spiked loosestrife, /-/- 
thrum Salicaria. Swamp-loosestrife, Xesaa verticil- 
fata. Tufted loosestrife, Lysimaehia thyrsiftora. 
West Indian loosestrife, Jussicea suffruticosa. 
loose-work (los'werk), n. An old style of em- 
broidery in which parts were left free to move, 
as the leaves of a tree represented in the work, 
and attached by one side or one point only. 
loot (lot), . [< Hind. fa(cerebral t), < Skt. lotra, 
loptra, plunder, booty, spoil, < / lup, break: see 
rupture, and cf. rob, reave, from the same ult. 
root.] Booty; plunder, especially such as is 
taken in war. [Originally Anglo-Indian, but 
now in common English and American use.] 
If his adherence was prompted by the pure love of loot, 
as he called plunder, . . . we were sure of his staunchness 
so long as our crop of loot throve better than our enemy's. 
J. W. Palmer, Up and Down the Irrawaddl, p. 136. 
Loosestrife (Ijitmacttia qttadrifolia). 
j, upper part of the stem with the flowers ; 
a. lower part, showing the rhizome: a, flow- 
er ; f>, fruit. 
[< loot, n.] I. trans. To plunder, 
as a house or a city which I 
loot (lot), t .. 
as a house or a city which has been taken by 
storm; pillage; sack; ransack in search of plun- 
der; also, to seize and carry off as plunder. 
A place of temporary security for the plunder looted by 
laundresses. Dickens, Uncommercial Traveller, xiv. 
A body of soldiers . . . looted everything they could 
flnd. B. Sartorius, In the .Soudan, p. 54. 
II. intrans. To engage in pillage ; take booty. 
It was. of course, rather difficult to prevent oar men 
from looting, and generally going on as natives, and, for 
the matter of that, white men too, are In the habit of doing 
after a victory. Harper's Mag., LXXVII. 361. 
loo-table (16'ta"bl), n. An ornamental round 
table for use in playing at loo. 
"Augustus, my love," said Miss Pecksniff, "ask the price 
of the eight rosewood chairs and the loo-table." 
Dickens, Martin Chuzzlewit, xlvi. 
looter (16'ter), w. One who loots; a plunderer. 
Those insatiable looters, men. women, and children, all 
are at it. W. U. Russell, Diary in India, II. 340. 
looty (lo'ti), B.; pi. looties (-tiz). [< Hind, luti, 
a plunderer, < lut, plunder: see loot, n.] In the 
Eastlndies,aplunderer; alooter. Seepindaree. 
The looties Indeed of Ispahan are proverbial as the most 
" rowdy " set of vagabonds in Persia. 
JSneye. Brit., XIIL 395. 
loovet, r. ' See love%. 
loovert, looveredt. See louver, lowered. 
loowarm, a. See lew-warm. 
lop 1 (lop), .; pret. and j 
[A var. of top 2 , q. v. C 
word in another sense. For the variation of 
vowel, cf. flap and flop, strap and strop, knap 
and fcnop.] I. in trans. 1 . To hang down loosely ; 
droop: said especially of the pendulous ears of 
some animals, as dogs and rabbits. 2. To 
bend indolently sidewise or downward; loll; 
lounge. [Colloq.] 
The senora . . . could only lop about in her saddle. 
The Century, XXIII. 652. 
II. trans. To let droop ; allow to hang down : 
as, a horse lops his ears. 
lop 1 (Ion), n. [< lop 1 , r.] A hanging down; 
a drooping, as of the ears of rabbits. 
lop 2 (lop), r. *.; pret. and pp. lopped, ppr. lopping. 
[< ME. *loppen(not recorded, but prob.the source 
of ML. loppare, lop); prob. another use ( 'cut the 
Ill'l III 
1 pp. lopped, ppr. lopping. 
Cf. lop'', prob. the same 
