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Synonyms

cast loose

Idioms  

  1. Also, cast adrift. Let go, freed, as in After Rob was suspended from boarding school, he was cast loose with nowhere to go, or Selling her home meant she was cast adrift with no financial ties or responsibilities. Originally a nautical term for releasing a vessel, this idiom was being used figuratively by the late 1500s.

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

An instrument-laden pier survived Harvey’s landfall, but a boat cast loose by the storm later struck and destroyed it.

From Science Magazine • Sep. 1, 2017

One day last week Austria's famed Glider Pilot Robert Kronfeld, onetime holder of the world's record, cast loose from a towing airplane over Calais, tussled with headwinds for two hours, landed at Dover.

From Time Magazine Archive

Carried to about 15,000 feet by the mother plane, the baka would be cast loose by its pilot to ride on the 40-second "whoosh" from three powerful rockets.

From Time Magazine Archive

First, he had to pry his cast loose from the stylized posturing of the kabuki influence.

From Time Magazine Archive

They were just about to cast loose when their guide paused, boat-hook in hand.

From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.