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

It was noted by several of the professional spectators that every English playwright has one plot in his system that he must unloose before he is happy.

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

Here is a novel to hate and to love, to make you feel simultaneously disgusted and unloosed.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 26, 2021

“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

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

From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2018

We see her dark hair unloosed, a cascade of black.

From The New Yorker ● Aug. 11, 2016

This soon became clear when a platoon of otters on the ramparts unloosed a rattling fusillade of heavy pebbles.

From "Redwall" by Brian Jacques

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

Now he found that he could not remember the first phrases without unloosing and looking at a small roll of paper which he held furtively in his hand.

From Phineas Finn The Irish Member by Anthony Trollope

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