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Synonyms

unloose

American  
[uhn-loos] / ʌnˈlus /

verb (used with object)

unloosed, unloosing
  1. to loosen or relax (the grasp, hold, fingers, etc.).

  2. to let loose or set free; free from restraint.

  3. to undo or untie (a fastening, knot, etc.); unfasten.


unloose British  
/ ʌnˈluːs /

verb

  1. to set free; release

  2. to loosen or relax (a hold, grip, etc)

  3. to unfasten or untie

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Etymology

Origin of unloose

1325–75; Middle English unloosen; see un- 2, loose


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.

See Examples For:

I unloose the cow and leave her and her newborn to each other.

From The Guardian ● Mar. 22, 2018

And in a way this has stifled exactly the sort of catharsis the play is supposed to unloose.

From The Guardian ● Sep. 3, 2014

In the equivalent of flight attendants becoming pilots, caddies became players seven days a week, not merely on Monday mornings, when the clubs where they worked might unloose them onto largely vacant courses.

From New York Times ● Apr. 10, 2010

For seven humid, wakeful nights, the crash of thunder and flash of lightning had kept the cariocas awake, and the superstitious among them wondered if the gods of darkness had decided to unloose their wrath.

From Time Magazine Archive

The continents strain to unloose themselves, to drift reckless and heavy in the seas.

From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García

With that said, the marinade is not strong enough to survive the avalanche of ingredients unloosed whenever you cut into Chipotle’s Mission-style burrito.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 15, 2023

“A book I entered hesitantly, cautiously, I exited anew — something in me unloosed, running,” our reviewer, Danez Smith, writes.

From New York Times ● Jan. 21, 2021

Only once is the anger unloosed, in the opening credits, when Amen’s “Coma America” is played at such a volume that it sounds like a scream.

From The New Yorker ● Mar. 22, 2019

The right to have the stays of gender unloosed, the right to breathe.

From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2018

I quick unloosed his arm so’s the conjurization wouldn’t have the chance to jump off of him and onto me.

From "Elijah of Buxton" by Christopher Paul Curtis

And, in the San Francisco Bay Area, burrowing rodents may be digging into entombed trash at a landfill-turned-park, unloosing explosive levels of methane.

From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 19, 2025

But, unfortunately, if the contagion spreads to all the elements of our planet, the consequences of unloosing such a cataclysm can only be viewed with apprehension.

From Salon ● Aug. 12, 2023

She started to think about how she could craft a fuller version of Iphigenia, perhaps by unloosing more of her internal monologue, and even by refusing to present her as a single, straightforward character.

From New York Times ● Nov. 2, 2021

The effect has been an unloosing of hysteria upon the land.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 3, 2018

When morning came I slipped my hands again inside the ropes, as I feared they might accuse the Rupun of unloosing my hands, and he might be punished on my account.

From An Explorer's Adventures in Tibet by Arnold Henry Savage Landor

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