Adjacent Words

Loosening definitions

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Webster's 1828 Dictionary

LOOS'ENING, ppr. Freeing from tightness, tension or fixedness; rendering less compact.

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

n
1: an occurrence of control or strength weakening; "the relaxation of requirements"; "the loosening of his grip"; "the slackening of the wind" [syn: relaxation, loosening, slackening]
2: the act of making something less tight [syn: loosening, laxation] [ant: tightening]

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Loosen Loos"en, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Loosened; p. pr. & vb. n. Loosening.] [See Loose, v. t.] 1. To make loose; to free 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. 2. To free from restraint; to set at liberty.. It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding. --Dryden. 3. To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of. --Bacon.

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

see loosen

Moby Thesaurus

abatement, allayment, alleviation, assuagement, blunting, calming, carelessness, damping, deadening, demulcent, demulsion, diminution, dulcification, dulling, easiness, easing, easygoingness, emollient, falling-off, hushing, impotence, imprecision, indifference, laxity, laxness, leniency, lessening, letdown, letup, lightening, looseness, lulling, mitigation, modulation, mollification, mollifying, negligence, overindulgence, overpermissiveness, pacification, palliation, permissiveness, quietening, quieting, reduction, relaxation, relaxedness, relaxing, remission, remissness, slackening, slackness, sloppiness, softening, softness, soothing, subduement, subduing, tempering, tranquilization, unrestraint, weakness