Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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.