unloose
Americanverb (used with object)
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to loosen or relax (the grasp, hold, fingers, etc.).
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to let loose or set free; free from restraint.
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to undo or untie (a fastening, knot, etc.); unfasten.
verb
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to set free; release
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to loosen or relax (a hold, grip, etc)
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to unfasten or untie
Etymology
Origin of unloose
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
At a subsequent Cabinet meeting the decision was made to unloose purse strings on rocket work whenever McElroy could prove that he needed the money.
From Time Magazine Archive
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The continents strain to unloose themselves, to drift reckless and heavy in the seas.
From "Dreaming in Cuban" by Cristina García
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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
Jerry avoided fingers that tore at his sleeve and he unloosed the ball.
From "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
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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
He raised Oneida, unloosing his neckcloth to staunch the wound.
From Traditions of Lancashire, Volume 2 by Roby, John
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.