loosen

CEFRC1

/ˈluːsn̩/

verb

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Sits at C1 on the CEFR scale

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In context

After the Thanksgiving meal, Bill loosened his belt.
to loosen a knot; to loosen one's grip / hold on something
1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie, London: William Lee, Century 5, p. 111, […] after a yeares Rooting, then Shaking doth the Tree good, by Loosening of the Earth […]

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[...] and on the Saturday heavy seas pounded the W.R. on its exposed coastal stretch between Dawlish and Teignmouth, loosening the ballast and forcing trains to proceed with extreme caution.
1960 December, “Talking of Trains: The railways and the Devon floods”, in Trains Illustrated, page 709
In order to deal with deposits of soot on boiler-tubes while running, especially if poor coal is in use, locomotives are often now provided with blowers on the firebox back-plate which can be made to discharge a jet of high pressure steam towards the firebox tubeplates; this has the effect of loosening and blowing off the soot deposits.
1944 May and June, “The Why and the Wherefore: Locomotive Soot Blowers”, in Railway Magazine, page 194
His days at the villa had loosened his body and freed his tenseness […]
1992, Michael Ondaatje, chapter 10, in The English Patient, London: Picador, published 1993, page 265
The subtile shower the earth hath softned so, And with the waues, the trees tost to and fro; That the rootes loosen, and the tops downe sway, So that whole Forrests quickly swimme away.
1630, Michael Drayton, “Noahs Floud”, in The Muses Elizium Lately Discouered, London: John Waterson, page 108
The sea scurvy is attended with an universal putrefaction, the teeth loosen, old wounds that had been healed again open […]
1764, Oliver Goldsmith, An History of England, in a Series of Letters from a Nobleman to his Son, London: J. Newbery, Volume 2, Letter 19, p. 159

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From loose + -en.