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Work done by platting or braiding; a plait. Her hair, nor loose, nor tied in formal plat. Shak.

A term used somewhat loosely to designate a rock consisting of a fine-grained base (usually feldspathic) through which crystals, as of feldspar or quartz, are disseminated. There are red, purple, and green varieties, which are highly esteemed as marbles. Porphyry shell (Zoöl.), a handsome marine gastropod shell (Oliva…

A portable case for holding loose papers, prints, drawings, etc.

Easily crumbling to pieces; friable; loose; as, a powdery spar.

the genus Bucco, or family Bucconidæ. They are small birds, usually with dull-colored and loose plumage, and have twelve tail feathers. See Barbet (b).

Hence: Imperial sovereignty; royal rank, dignity, or favor; loosely and colloquially, any exalted station; great wealth. "He was born in the purple." Gibbon.

and purport of that dialogue. Norris. With a look so piteous in purport As if he had been loosed out of hell. Shak.

In India and Persia, thin loose trowsers or drawers; in Europe and America, drawers worn at night, or a kind of nightdress with legs. [Written also paijama.]

with a small but long pit; it is cured when green, keeps well, and has a delicate flavor. Loosely, any olive of similar character.

Sand easily moved or readily yielding to pressure; especially, a deep mass of loose or moving sand mixed with water, sometimes found at the mouth of a river or along some coasts, and very dangerous, from the difficulty of extricating a person who begins sinking into it. Life hath quicksands, -- Life hath snares! Longfe…

A loose overcoat with large sleeves; -- named from Lord Raglan, an English general.

A loose, disorderly, vicious man; a person addicted to lewdness and other scandalous vices; a debauchee; a roué. Am illiterate and frivolous old rake. Macaulay.

Loose; disjointed; falling to pieces; out of repair. There came . . . my lord the cardinal, in his ramshackle coach. Thackeray.

Characterized by wide separation of parts; of loose texture; not thick or dense; thin; as, a rare atmosphere at high elevations. Water is nineteen times lighter, and by consequence nineteen times rarer, than gold. Sir I. Newton.

, usually, drinks are served only at tables and simple food may also be had; -- sometimes loosely used, in English, of what are essentially basement restaurants where liquors are served.

To make lax or loose; to make less close, firm, rigid, tense, or the like; to slacken; to loosen; to open; as, to relax a rope or cord; to relax the muscles or sinews. Horror . . . all his joints relaxed. Milton. Nor served it to relax their serried files. Milton.

To let loose again; to set free from restraint, confinement, or servitude; to give liberty to, or to set at liberty; to let go. Now at that feast he released unto them one prisoner, whomsoever they desired. Mark xv. 6.

ndemnity. make reparation or reparations. I am sensible of the scandal I have given by my loose writings, and make what reparation I am able. Dryden.

A feast with loose and noisy jollity; riotous festivity or merrymaking; a carousal. This day in mirth and revel to dispend. Chaucer. Some men ruin . . . their bodies by incessant revels. Rambler. Master of the revels, Revel master. Same as Lord of misrule, under Lord.

A loose or irregular train of thought occurring in musing or mediation; deep musing; daydream. "Rapt in nameless reveries." Tennyson. When ideas float in our mind without any reflection or regard of the understanding, it is that which the French call revery, our language has scarce a name for it. Locke.…