Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being loose or relaxed; laxness of attachment, adjustment, connection, or coherence: as, the looseness of a cord or a vein; looseness of the skin, of earth, or of the texture of cloth; looseness of expression or of reasoning.
  • noun Irregularity; instability; habitual deviation from rules; as applied to conduct, laxity; immorality; disorder.
  • noun Flux from the bowels; diarrhea.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state, condition, or quality, of being loose

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The quality or fact of being free from rigidity, attachment or restraint; not tight, not firmly attached or taut.
  • noun A relaxed state regarding principles or accuracy.
  • noun Moral laxity; licentiousness.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun the quality of movability by virtue of being free from attachment or other restraints
  • noun movement or space for movement
  • noun dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure
  • noun frequent and watery bowel movements; can be a symptom of infection or food poisoning or colitis or a gastrointestinal tumor
  • noun a lack of strict accuracy; laxity of practice
  • noun freedom from restraint

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From loose +‎ -ness.

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Examples

  • The point is trivial, since she was six months old at the time of this first visit and obviously remembered nothing of it, but it indicates a certain looseness in brushwork.

    Twenty Letters to a Father 1969

  • The point is trivial, since she was six months old at the time of this first visit and obviously remembered nothing of it, but it indicates a certain looseness in brushwork.

    Twenty Letters to a Father 1967

  • I'm glad you like the looseness, which is inevitable when working fast.

    Cow Portrait James Gurney 2010

  • It ought also to be observed that all such kinds of argument are a plea for looseness, which is not the manner of God.

    Sermons for the New Life. 1802-1876 1876

  • One great cause of all the wickedness, and violence, and looseness, that is upon the earth, is, they do not believe that God is near them and stands by them.

    The Works of Dr. John Tillotson, Late Archbishop of Canterbury. Vol. 07. 1630-1694 1820

  • And it does suggest a looseness which is dangerous to the president.

    CNN Transcript Dec 6, 2009 2009

  • And they went in, as such reckless men generally do, spending their money as freely as they could, and drinking with a "looseness" that promised headaches on the morrow, if nothing more.

    Wild Bill's Last Trail Ned Buntline

  • May no careless or corrupt administration of justice or "looseness" or infidelities of the people come in to bring down the wrath of Heaven for its interruption!

    Luther and the Reformation: The Life-Springs of Our Liberties Joseph A. Seiss

  • And it was a free admiration he would not have dared show had she not been a daughter of illegitimacy -- a girl whose mother's "looseness" raised pleasing if scandalous suggestions and even possibilities in the mind of every man with a carnal eye.

    Susan Lenox: Her Fall and Rise, Volume I 1915

  • Except for this error, which may be regarded as constant, we use the word with reckless looseness, meaning a dozen different things by it, and yet always assuming that to a respectable man it can have only one meaning.

    Getting Married George Bernard Shaw 1903

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