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ee from tightness, tension, firmness, or fixedness; to make less dense or compact; as, to loosen a string, or a knot; to loosen a rock in the earth. After a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree good by loosening of the earth. Bacon.

One who, or that which, loosens.

The state, condition, or quality, of being loose; as, the looseness of a cord; looseness of style; looseness of morals or of principles.

To loosen; to unloose.

wheel, piston, or screw, can be moved without moving the connected parts, resulting from looseness in fitting or from wear; also, the jarring or reflex motion caused in badly fitting machinery by irregularities in velocity or a reverse of motion.

carting sand, gravel, earth, etc., one third of a cubic yard of the material before it is loosened is estimated to be a cart load. -- Cart rope, a stout rope for fastening a load on a cart; any strong rope. -- To put (or get or set) the cart before the horse, to invert the order of related facts or ideas, as by putti…

An agricultural implement used in the tillage of growing crops, to loosen the surface of the earth and kill the weeds; esp., a triangular frame set with small shares, drawn by a horse and by handles.

To loosen or separate by dissolving the glue which unties; to unglue.

scharge of loose or fluid evacuations from the intestines, without tenesmus; a purging or looseness of the bowels; a flux.

To turn up, or delve in, (earth) with a spade or a hoe; to open, loosen, or break up (the soil) with a spade, or other sharp instrument; to pierce, open, or loosen, as if with a spade. Be first to dig the ground. Dryden.

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

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.…

rough a tap hole; a foundry cupola. -- Flowing sheet (Naut.), a sheet when eased off, or loosened to the wind, as when the wind is abaft the beam. Totten.

ëriform. or gaseous state; -- opposed to solidity. It was this want of organization, this looseness and fluidity of the new movement, that made it penetrate through every class of society. J. R. Green.

A disease of the teeth, which causes them to loosen and fall out of their sockets.

it should be master of Asia, Alexander the Great averted the ill omen of his inability to loosen it by cutting it with his sword. Hence, a Gordian knot is an inextricable difficulty; and to cut the Gordian knot is to remove a difficulty by bold and energetic measures.

Having the skin adhering so closely to the ribs and back as not to be easily loosened or raised; -- said of an animal.

roughness of voice or sound, due to mucus collected on the vocal cords, or to swelling or looseness of the cords.

or clean, with a hoe; as, to hoe the earth in a garden; also, to clear from weeds, or to loosen or arrange the earth about, with a hoe; as, to hoe corn. To hoe one's row, to do one's share of a job. [Colloq.]