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Soldiers deployed in loose order, to cover the front or flanks of an advancing army or a marching column.

The lower and loose part of a coat, dress, or other like garment; the part below the waist; as, the skirt of a coat, a dress, or a mantle.

The part of anything that hangs loose, having no strain upon it; as, the slack of a rope or of a sail.

The loose or slack part of a rope; slack.

The violent shaking or flapping of anything hanging loose in the wind, as of a sail, when being hauled down.

a horse when drawing a slegh, or to the sleigh itself; especially a globular bell with a loose ball which plays inside instead of a clapper.

one that slippeth in his speech, but not from his heart. Ecclus. xix. 16. To let slip, to loose from the slip or noose, as a hound; to allow to escape. Cry, "Havoc," and let slip the dogs of war. Shak.

Not easily held; liable or apt to slip away. The slippery god will try to loose his hold. Dryden.

in dress, manners, style, etc.; slovenly; shuffling; as, slipshod manners; a slipshod or loose style of writing. Thy wit shall ne'er go slipshod. Shak.

A strand, or slender roll, of cotton or other fiber in a loose, untwisted state, produced by a carding machine and ready for the roving or slubbing which preceeds spinning.

A loose lower garment; loose breeches; chiefly used in the plural. "A pair of slops." Sir P. Sidney. There's a French salutation to your French slop. Shak.

A loose, bent-up end of one of the strap rails, or flat rails, formerly used on American railroads. It was sometimes so bent by the passage of a train as to slip over a wheel and pierce the bottom of a car.

ided that; on condition that; in case that; if. Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuriously, by licensing and prohibiting, to misdoubt her strength. Milton.

. A longing after sensual pleasures is a dissolution of the spirit of a man, and makes it loose, soft, and wandering. Jer. Taylor.

Loose; free; liberal; as, a solute interpretation. [Obs.] Bacon.

Tending to dissolve; loosening; laxative. Bacon.

fer to be scattered; -- applied to fluids and to substances whose particles are small and loose; as, to spill water from a pail; to spill quicksilver from a vessel; to spill powder from a paper; to spill sand or flour.

Soft, and full of cavities; of an open, loose, pliable texture; as, a spongy excrescence; spongy earth; spongy cake; spongy bones.

To pass over by leaping; as, to spring a fence. To spring a butt (Naut.), to loosen the end of a plank in a ship's bottom. -- To spring a leak (Naut.), to begin to leak. -- To spring an arch (Arch.), to build an arch; -- a common term among masons; as, to spring an arcg over a lintel. -- To spring a rattle, to cause…

s often mixed with cotton. -- Spun yarn (Naut.), a line formed of two or more rope-yarns loosely twisted.