Part 776

Good conscience and good loos.

Chaucer.

Loose (ls), a. [Compar. Looser (?); superl. Loosest.] [OE. loos, lous, laus, Icel. lauss; akin to OD. loos, D. los, AS. leás false, deceitful, G. los, loose, Dan. & Sw. lös, Goth. laus, and E. lose. √127. See Lose, and cf. Leasing falsehood.] 1. Unbound; untied; unsewed; not attached, fastened, fixed, or confined; as, the loose sheets of a book.

Her hair, nor loose, nor tied in formal plat.

Shak.

2. Free from constraint or obligation; not bound by duty, habit, etc.; -- with from or of.

Now I stand Loose of my vow; but who knows Cato's thoughts ?

Addison.

3. Not tight or close; as, a loose garment.

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

With horse and chariots ranked in loose array.

Milton.

5. Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose style, or way of reasoning.

The comparison employed . . . must be considered rather as a loose analogy than as an exact scientific explanation.

Whewel.

6. Not strict in matters of morality; not rigid according to some standard of right.

The loose morality which he had learned.

Sir W. Scott.

7. Unconnected; rambling.

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

I. Watts.

8. Lax; not costive; having lax bowels. Locke.

9. Dissolute; unchaste; as, a loose man or woman.

Loose ladies in delight.

Spenser.

10. Containing or consisting of obscene or unchaste language; as, a loose epistle. Dryden.

At loose ends, not in order; in confusion; carelessly managed. -- Fast and loose. See under Fast. -- To break loose. See under Break. -- Loose pulley. (Mach.) See Fast and loose pulleys, under Fast. -- To let loose, to free from restraint or confinement; to set at liberty.

Loose, n. 1. Freedom from restraint. [Obs.] Prior.