footloose

American  

[foot-loos] / ˈfʊtˌlus /

adjective

1. free to go or travel about; not confined by responsibilities.

   After graduation, she backpacked through Europe, footloose and fancy-free.

   Synonyms:

   unattached, fancy-free, carefree, unencumbered

---

footloose British  

/ ˈfʊtˌluːs /

adjective

1. free to go or do as one wishes

2. eager to travel; restless

   to feel footloose

---

Etymology

Origin of footloose

First recorded in 1690–1700; foot + loose

Explanation

If you’re footloose, you have no responsibilities or attachments and you're free to roam. You can go where you want and do as you please. You might even want to kick off your shoes and dance, like the teens in the 1984 movie Footloose. Being footloose is being free of obligations — no job, pet, house, schoolwork, or sweetheart to hold you down. A footloose and fancy-free person might take a year off after high school just to wander. You'll often find footloose in the phrase "footloose and fancy-free." In the 17th century, footloose meant literally "with feet unshackled."

Example Sentences

Such deceptions mounted as footloose youth matured into a “pathologically restless” adulthood, to quote Matthiessen from a letter to Plimpton.

From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025

"If they leave, either the jobs disappear entirely, or factories scrabble to receive orders from footloose buying agents who care only about cheap labour and do not worry about factory conditions," Bowman told Reuters.

From Reuters • Aug. 16, 2023

He left in 2016, spending his days footloose and fancy-free at the Oakland Zoo.

From Seattle Times • Nov. 23, 2022

Matt and I were no longer the footloose young people who hung out at coffee shops.

From Los Angeles Times • Oct. 16, 2021

It should not be denied . .. that being footloose has always ex-hilarated us.

From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer