Loose Meaning
/luːs/Definition, CEFR level A2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
verbTo let loose, to free from restraints.
verbTo unfasten, to loosen.
Sentence Examples
No money, no job, no friends. He was truly at loose ends.
Check all the loose knots and fasten them tight.
He pulled at a loose strand of wool in his sweater.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After losing considerable weight, her jeans were too ____ and she needed a belt to keep them up.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The change in my pocket was ____, and it made a jingling sound as I walked fast down the street.
Word Origin & History
Etymology tree Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- Proto-Indo-European *lewHs-der. Proto-Germanic *leusaną Proto-Germanic *lausaz Old Norse laussbor. Middle English loos English loose From Middle English loos, los, lous, from Old Norse lauss, from Proto-Germanic *lausaz, whence also -less, leasing; from Proto-Indo-European *lewh₁- (“to untie, set free, separate”), whence also lyo-, -lysis, via Ancient Greek.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"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:
"Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga in Pamphylia: and John departing from them returned to Jerusalem."
— 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Acts 13:13:
"he had red her riddle, which no wight
Could ever loose"
— 1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book V, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC:
Explore More A2 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
After losing considerable weight, her jeans were too ____ and she needed a belt to keep them up.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The change in my pocket was ____, and it made a jingling sound as I walked fast down the street.