Search the Dictionary

m is applied both to the nomination of candidates without any nominating convention, and, loosely, to the nomination effected, as in the case of candidates for president or senator of the United States, by the election of nominating representatives pledged or instructed to vote for certain candidates dssignated by popu…

To loose the bands of; to set free; to disunite; to scatter; to disperse; to break up the organization of; especially, to dismiss from military service; as, to disband an army. They disbanded themselves and returned, every man to his own dwelling. Knolles.

To unbind; to loosen. [Obs.] Mede.

Ungirded; loosely dressed. [R.] Sir W. Scott.

An undress; a loose, negligent dress; deshabille. They breakfast in dishabille. Smollett.

To suffer (the hair) to hang loosely or disorderly; to spread or throw (the hair) in disorder; -- used chiefly in the passive participle. With garments rent and hair disheveled, Wringing her hands and making piteous moan. Spenser.

Having in loose disorder; disarranged; as, disheveled hair.

To let loose from prison, to set all liberty. [R.] Bulwer.

Loosed from restraint; esp., loose in morals and conduct; recklessly abandoned to sensual pleasures; profligate; wanton; lewd; debauched. "A wild and dissolute soldier." Motley.

State or quality of being dissolute; looseness of morals and manners; addictedness to sinful pleasures; debauchery; dissipation. Chivalry had the vices of dissoluteness. Bancroft.

To break the continuity of; to disconnect; to disunite; to sunder; to loosen; to undo; to separate. Nothing can dissolve us. Shak. Down fell the duke, his joints dissolved asunder. Fairfax. For one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another. The Declaration of Independence.…

ade a duty by low craft; to practice mean shifts; to use tricky devices; to play fast and loose; to quibble. Some dodging casuist with more craft than sincerity. Milton.

One who dodges or evades; one who plays fast and loose, or uses tricky devices. Smart.

A sort of loose or irregular verse; mean or undignified poetry. Doggerel like that of Hudibras. Addison. The ill-spelt lines of doggerel in which he expressed his reverence for the brave sufferers. Macaulay.

That which is held as an opinion; a tenet; a doctrine. The obscure and loose dogmas of early antiquity. Whewell.

A loose wench; a disreputable sweetheart. Shak.

A textile fabric used for decorative purposes, especially when hung loosely and in folds carefully disturbed; as: (a) Garments or vestments of this character worn upon the body, or shown in the representations of the human figure in art. (b) Hangings of a room or hall, or about a bed. Like one that wraps the drapery of…

A collection of loose earth and rocks, or boulders, which have been distributed over large portions of the earth's surface, especially in latitudes north of forty degrees, by the agency of ice.

ute of the power of speech; unable; to utter articulate sounds; as, the dumb brutes. To unloose the very tongues even of dumb creatures. Hooker.

Fagots, boughs, or loose materials of any kind, laid on the bottom of the hold for the cargo to rest upon to prevent injury by water, or stowed among casks and other cargo to prevent their motion.