c. 1450. Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.), 252. There xul ȝe ffyndyn … An asse tyed… Unlosne þat asse, and brynge it to me.
1586. D. Rowland, Lazarillo, II. (1672), M 6. A Cord fastened about my foot, which … was tied to a great Chest … which though I could, I would not unloosen.
1610. Markham, Masterp., II. xlix. 294. Forget not … to vnloosen the list and to take it away.
1650. Earl Monm., trans. Senault’s Man bec. Guilty, 335. God … would … teach us that accidents might be unloosened from their substance.
1782. V. Knox, Ess., ii. I. 11. Fix them [sc. religious principles] deeply in your bosom, and let them go with you unloosened and unaltered to the grave.
c. 1845. J. T. Goodsir, in Ch. Scot. Pulpit, I. 248. Whose power … unloosened the dumb tongue of conscience.
1863. P. Barry, Dockyard Econ., 189. Ankle chains … riveted together,… never to be unloosened night nor day.
Hence Unloosening vbl. sb.
1867. E. S. Purcell, in Ess. Relig. & Lit., Ser. II. 476. Everything tends … to the unloosening of all bonds between society and the Church.
