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Showing results for unloose. Search instead for unloosed.
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

Every person in the Senate knows Jesse could unloose that barrage of letters.

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

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

From The Guardian ● Dec. 8, 2018

He stuck out his tongue and unloosed a menacing yowl.

From Washington Post ● Nov. 17, 2016

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

Out it pours: the song unloosed by her maddened craving for Fielder—by no means the first wastrel, in history, for whose sake a thing of beauty has been wrought.

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 1, 2015

Jerry avoided fingers that tore at his sleeve and he unloosed the ball.

From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier

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

I was not sure I was strong enough to control the forces I could set in motion, or that the result of unloosing them would be—Utopia.

From Delilah of the Snows by Harold Bindloss

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