LOOSENING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Loosening

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/lˈusənɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Loosen v. t. (past & past part. loosened; pres. part. loosening)

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."

To free from restraint; to set at liberty.. "It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding."

To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of.

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

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Etymology of 'Loosening'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Loosening" Quotes from Famous Books

... by which it may be attached to the main shaft at any position on its circumference by screwing through a hole drilled in the collar. The adjustment of the anvils about the shaft may be changed in a moment by the simple movement of loosening and tightening the thumb-screw constituted by the anvil and its bolt. The device by which the extent of the hammer-fall is controlled consists of cam-shaped sheets of thin wood mounted within parallel grooves on opposite ...

— Harvard Psychological Studies, Volume 1 • Various

... the formal and legal elements of the connection were loosening—-more especially in the departments of commerce and defence.[30] The careers of men like Buchanan and Galt, through whom the Canadian tariff received a complete revision, illustrate how little the former links to Britain were allowed to remain in trade relations. There was a day ...

— British Supremacy & Canadian Self-Government - 1839-1854 • J. L. Morison

... social system is to be moved by the modern spirit, we may look for movement in the direction of freedom of individual action, that is, the loosening of caste; we may look for larger ideas of nationality and citizenship, superseding to some extent the idea of caste. As is not infrequent in India, Government pointed out the way for public opinion. In 1831 the Governor-General, Lord William Bentinck, issued ...

— New Ideas in India During the Nineteenth Century - A Study of Social, Political, and Religious Developments • John Morrison

... While we were discussing the seaman's favourite beverage, O'Driscoll indulged me, and by necessity my ship's company, with some of his choicest songs, trolled forth in a full, clear voice, and the liquor loosening the muscles of his tongue, every word came forth with the richest brogue of his native land. At first the people listened attentively as they sat forward. Then they by degrees crept up nearer and nearer, till at ...

— Hurricane Hurry • W.H.G. Kingston

... the wind now come off shore, and so quickly did the packed "slob," relieved of the wind pressure, "run abroad," that already I could not see one pan larger than ten feet square; moreover, the ice was loosening so rapidly that I saw that retreat was absolutely impossible. Neither was there any way to get off the little ...

— Adrift on an Ice-Pan • Wilfred T. Grenfell

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