v. Forms: 4 losne, lousen, loosne, 6 loozen, 7 losen, 9 dial. lowsen, 4, 7– loosen. f. LOOSE a. + -EN5. ON. had losna intr., to become loose, from the wk. grade of the root.] To make loose or looser.

1

  1.  trans. To set free or release from bonds or physical restraint. Obs. exc. poet. (rare) and dial.

2

1382.  Wyclif, Ps. cxlv. 7. The Lord losneth the gyuede. Ibid., ci. 21. That he shulde … loosen the sones of the slayne.

3

1530.  Palsgr., 766/2. I unbynde, I losen, je deslie.

4

1804.  Couper, Poetry, I. 88. The oussen, lousen’d frae the plough, Spread oure the grassy plain.

5

1887.  Bowen, Virg. Æneid, II. 153. Lifting his hands now loosened from chains.

6

  b.  transf. and fig. Now only in the phrase to loosen (a person’s) tongue, and in certain poetical or rhetorical uses (? after Shelley).

7

1645.  Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1851, IV. 192. And therfore doth in this Law, what best agrees with his goodnes, loosning a sacred thing to peace and charity, rather then binding it to hatred and contention. Ibid., 222. And this their limiting that which God loosen’d and their loosning the sinnes that he limited.

8

1695.  Dryden, Dufresnoy’s Art Painting, 185. This is an admirable Rule; a Painter ought to have it perpetually present in his Mind and Memory…. It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.

9

1821.  Shelley, Prometh. Unb., III. iii. 81. Thou breathe into the many-folded shell, Loosening its mighty music.

10

1850.  Tennyson, In Mem., xlviii. 14. But [Sorrow] rather loosens from the lip Short swallow-flights of song.

11

1869.  Trollope, He knew, etc. xliv. (1878), 246. By degrees her tongue was loosened.

12

1893.  E. H. Barker, Wand. S. Waters, 222. The fragrance of the valley was loosened.

13

1895.  Zangwill, Master, I. x. 110. The action seemed to loosen his tongue.

14

  2.  To undo, unfasten (bonds, a knot, or the like). Now usually: To render looser or less tight, to relax, slacken.

15

1382.  Wyclif, Isa. xx. 2. Go, and loosne the sac fro thi leendis.

16

1611.  Bible, Judith ix. 2. Who loosened the girdle of a maide to defile her.

17

1686.  trans. Chardin’s Trav. Persia, 384. The Grooms … walk the Horses, then they cloath them and loosen their Girts.

18

1806.  Surr, Winter in Lond., III. 54. The manacles were loosened from my hands.

19

1820.  Keats, St. Agnes, xxvi. She … Loosens her fragrant boddice.

20

1884.  Law Times, 3 May, 1/2. A Government not accustomed to loosen their purse strings.

21

1899.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., VII. 258. On loosening the ligatures the rabbit often gave a sudden jump forward.

22

1902.  A. E. W. Mason, Four Feathers, xv. 141. That access of panic which had loosened his joints when first he saw the low brown walls of the town.

23

  fig.  1871.  R. Ellis, trans. Catullus, lxiv. 367. Neptune’s bonds of stone from Dardan city to loosen.

24

  3.  To weaken the adhesion or attachment of; to unfix, detach.

25

1667.  Milton, P. L., VI. 643. From thir foundations loosning to and fro They pluckt the seated Hills.

26

1680.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 232. The manner of loosning all the other inward Spheres is as the Former. Ibid. Loosen it out of the Wax.

27

1726.  Leoni, trans. Alberti’s Archit., I. 72/2. The water … routs up the bottom, and … carries away every thing that it can loosen.

28

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 326. A wall which time and weather had so loosened that it shook in every storm.

29

1879.  N. Smyth, Old Faiths in New Light, ii. (1882), 45. The ivy creeping up the wall of the church does not loosen its ancient stones.

30

1882.  ‘Ouida,’ Maremma, I. 28. Loosen the image from my hat.

31

  † b.  fig. To detach in affection, make a breach between. Obs.

32

1605.  Shaks., Lear, V. i. 19 (1st Qo. 1608). I had rather loose the battaile, then that sister should loosen him and mee.

33

  c.  slang. To loosen (a person’s) hide: to flog.

34

1902.  Daily Chron., 11 April, 9/2. He thought the only way to make them decent members of society was ‘to loosen their hides.’

35

  d.  intr. for refl. or pass. To become loose.

36

1677.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 46. The square on the Spindle will be apt to loosen in the square of the Wheel. Ibid. (1680), 178. These Puppets stand the firmer, and are less subject to loosen. Ibid., 231. The Cube or Dy will loosen.

37

1726.  Swift, Gulliver, IV. ix. They have a kind of Tree, which at Forty Years old loosens in the Root.

38

1899.  J. Hutchinson, Archives Surg., X. 157. A whitlow formed, and the nail loosened and was shed in fragments.

39

1901.  W. M. Ramsay, in Contemp. Rev., March, 390. His old ideas had been slowly loosening and dissolving.

40

  4.  trans. To make less coherent; to separate the particles of.

41

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 488. With Iron Teeth of Rakes … to move The crusted Earth, and loosen it above.

42

1787.  Winter, Syst. Husb., 62. Manures plowed in, loosen and divide the soil.

43

1846.  J. Baxter, Libr. Pract. Agric. (ed. 4), II. 329. The workman then with his spade loosens … the texture of the … soil.

44

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xxvii. 202. He struck the snow with his baton to loosen it.

45

  fig.  a. 1862.  Buckle, Civiliz. (1873), II. viii. 510. Society was loosened and seemed to be resolving itself into its elements.

46

  5.  a. To relax, relieve the costiveness of, cause a free evacuation of (the bowels).

47

1587.  Golding, De Mornay, viii. 95. Esculapius … was esteemed as a God for teaching … to loozen the Belly.

48

1626.  Bacon, Sylva, § 41. Feare looseneth the Belly.

49

1676.  Wiseman, Surg., V. i. 352. Also use … lenient Purgatives, to loosen the body.

50

1761.  W. Lewis, Mat. Med. (ed. 2), 181. To loosen the belly; to promote perspiration, urine, and the uterine purgations.

51

1822–34.  Good’s Study Med. (ed. 4), II. 617. The bowels [must] be loosened with some gentle aperient.

52

  b.  To render (a cough) ‘looser.’

53

1833.  Cycl. Pract. Med., I. 316/1. To loosen the cough … small doses of ipecacuanha or tartarized antimony are often most effectual.

54

1898.  Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 39. To mature, that is to loosen the [bronchial] catarrh.

55

  6.  To relax in point of severity or strictness.

56

1798.  Malthus, Popul. (1878), 10. The restraints to population are … loosened.

57

1858.  Buckle, Civiliz. (1873), II. viii. 568. Even the Inquisition was … made to loosen its hold over its victims.

58

1872.  G. B. Cheever, Lect. Pilgr. Progr., v. 152. The strictness of his imprisonment had been loosened.

59

1873.  Holland, A. Bonnic., vii. 119. Mr. Bird seemed to take a special pleasure in our society, and while loosening his claim on us as pupils, to hold us as associates and friends more closely.

60

1899.  Lt.-Col. T. S. Baldock, Cromwell as Soldier, 291. The men neither straggled nor loosened their discipline.

61