Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LOOP'ING, n.

In metallurgy, the running together of the matter of an ore into a mass, when the ore is only heated for calcination. [D. loopen, to run.] – Encyc.

LOORD, a. [D. lœr, a clown; Fr. lourd, Sp. lerdo, heavy, dull, gross.]

A dull, stupid fellow; a drone. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

LOOSE, a. [Goth. laus; D. los, losse; G. los; Dan. lös; Sw. lös. Qu. W. llæs, loose, lax.]

1. Unbound; untied; unsewed; not fastened or confined; as, the loose sheets of a book.
2. Not tight or close; as, a loose garment.
3. Not crowded; not close or compact. With horse and chariots rank'd in loose array. – Milton.
4. Not dense, close or compact; as, a cloth or fossil of loose texture.
5. Not close; not concise; lax; as, a loose and diffuse style.
6. Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose way of reasoning.
7. Not strict or rigid; as, a loose observance of rites.
8. Unconnected; rambling; as, a loose indigested play. Vario spends whole mornings in running over loose and unconnected pages. – Watts.
9. Of lax bowels. – Locke.
10. Unengaged; not attached or enslaved. Their prevailing principle is, to sit as loose from pleasures, and be as moderate in the use of them as they can. – Atterbury.
11. Disengaged; free from obligation; with from or of. Now I stand / Loose of my vow; but who knows Cato's thought? – Addison. [Little used.]
12. Wanton; unrestrained in behavior; dissolute; unchaste; as, a loose man or woman.
13. Containing unchaste language; as, a loose epistle. – Dryden. To break loose, to escape from confinement; to gain liberty by violence. Dryden. To get loose, to free from restraint or confinement; to set at liberty. – Locke.

LOOSE, n.

Freedom from restraint; liberty. Come, give thy soul a loose. – Dryden. Vent all its griefs, and give a loose to sorrow. – Addison. We use this word only in the phrase, give a loose. The following use of it, “he runs with an unbounded loose,” is obsolete. – Prior.

LOOSE, v.i.

To set sail; to leave a port or harbor. Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga, in Pamphylia. Acts xiii.

LOOSE, v.t. [loos; Sax. lysan, alysan, leosan; Sw. lösa; D. lossen, loozen; G. lösen; Dan. löser; Goth. lausyan; Gr. λυω, contracted from the same root. The W. llaesu, signifies to relax, but may be from the root of lax. These words coincide with the Ch. Syr. Ar. and Heb. חלץ. Class Ls, No. 30.]

1. To untie or unbind; to free from any fastening. Canst thou loose the bands of Orion? – Job xxxviii. Ye shall and an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them to me. Matth. xxi.
2. To relax. The joints of his loins were loosed. – Dan. v.
3. To release from imprisonment; to liberate; to set at liberty. The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed. – Is. li.
4. To free from obligation. Art thou loosed from a wife? seek not a wife. – 1 Cor. vii.
5. To free from any thing that binds or shackles; as, a man loosed from lust and pelf. – Dryden.
6. To relieve; to free from any thing burdensome or afflictive. Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. – Luke xiii.
7. To disengage; to detach; as, to loose one's hold.
8. To put off. Loose thy shoe from off thy foot. – Josh. v.
9. To open. Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof? Rev. v.
10. To remit; to absolve. Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven. Matth. xvi.

LOOS'ED, pp.

Untied; unbound; freed from restraint.

LOOSE'LY, adv. [loos'ly.]

1. Not fast; not firmly; that may be easily disengaged; as, things loosely tied or connected.
2. Without confinement. Her golden locks for haste were loosely shed / About her ears. – Spenser.
3. Without union or connection. Part loosely wing the region. – Milton.
4. Irregularly; not with the usual restraints. A bishop living loosely, was charged that his conversation was not according to the apostles' lives. – Camden.
5. Negligently; carelessly; heedlessly; as, a mind loosely employed. – Locke.
6. Meanly; slightly. A prince should not be so loosely studied, as to remember so weak a composition. – Shak.
7. Wantonly; dissolutely; unchastely. – Pope.

LOOS'EN, v.i.

To become loose; to become less tight, firm or compact.

LOOS'EN, v.t. [loos'n; from loose, or it is the Saxon infinitive retained.]

1. To free from tightness, tension, firmness or fixedness; as, to loosen a string when tied, or a knot; to loosen a joint; to loosen a rock in the earth.
2. To render less dense or compact; as, to loosen the earth about the roots of a tree.
3. To free from restraint. It loosens his hands and assists his understanding. – Dryden.
4. To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase alvine discharges. Fear loosened the belly. – Bacon.

LOOS'EN-ED, pp.

Freed from tightness or fixedness; rendered loose.

LOOSE'NESS, n. [loos'ness.]

1. The state of being loose or relaxed; a state opposite to that of being tight, fast, fixed or compact; as, the looseness of a cord; the looseness of a robe; the looseness of the skin; the looseness of earth, or of the texture of cloth.
2. The state opposite to rigor or rigidness; laxity; levity; as, looseness of morals or of principles.
3. Irregularity; habitual deviation from strict rules; as, looseness of life. – Hayward.
4. Habitual lewdness; unchastity. – Spenser.
5. Flux from the bowels; diarrhea. – Bacon.

LOOS'EN-ING, ppr.

Freeing from tightness, tension or fixedness; rendering less compact.

LOOSE'-STRIFE, n. [loos'strife.]

In botany, the English popular name of several species of plants, of the genera Lysimachia, Epilobium, Lythrum, and Gaura.

LOOS'ING, ppr.

Setting free from confinement.

LOP, n.¹

That which is cut from trees. Else both body and lop will be of little value. – Mortimer.

LOP, n.² [Sax. loppe.]

A flea. [Local.]

LOP, v.t. [I know not the affinities of this word, unless it is lob, or the W. llab, a stroke; llabiaw, to slap or strike, or the Eng. flap, or Ir. lubam, to bend. The primary sense is evidently to fall or fell, or to strike down, and I think it connected with flap.]

1. To cut off, as the top or extreme part of any thing; to shorten by cutting off the extremities; as, to lop a tree or its branches. With branches lopp'd in wood, or mountain fell'd. – Milton.
2. To cut off, as exuberances; to separate, as superfluous parts. Expunge the whole, or lop the excrescent parts. – Pope.
3. To cut partly off and bend down; as, to lop the trees or saplings of a hedge.
4. To let fall; to flap; as, a horse lops his ears.

LOPE, n. [Sw. löpa, D. loopen, to run. See Leap.]

A leap; a long step. [A word in popular use in America.]

LOPE, v. [pret. of leap. Sw. löpa; D. loopen.]

[Obs.] – Spenser.

LOPE, v.i.

To leap; to move or run with a long step, as a dog.

LO-PHI'O-DON, n.

A fossil animal allied to the Tapir; so named from the eminence of its teeth.

LOP'ING, ppr.

Leaping; moving or running with a long step.

LOP'PED, pp.

Cut off; shortened by cutting off the top or end; bent down.

LOP'PER, n.

One that lops.