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.

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unloose British  

/ ʌnˈluːs /

verb

1. to set free; release

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

3. to unfasten or untie

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Etymology

Origin of unloose

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

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

unloose unloosed unloosing

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

And perhaps, if the deep truth of that symbolism strikes home, he will doff his hat in salutation to a man the latchet of whose shoes he is unworthy to unloose.

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

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

Try as the author might to feel affinity for the unloosed and the wandering, it doesn't always happen.

From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2015

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

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

From Washington Post ● Jul. 3, 2018

Our disruption of the natural world, “Spillover” declares, is largely to blame for unloosing terrible microbes.

From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2012

Then the youthful Joukahainen From the mud his chin uplifted, And his beard he disentangled, From the rock his steed led forward,480 Drew his sledge from out the bushes, From the reeds his whip unloosing.

From Kalevala, Volume I (of 2) The Land of the Heroes by W. F. (William Forsell) Kirby

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