loosely

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Etymology

[edit]

From Middle English lously; equivalent to loose +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

[edit]

Adverb

[edit]

loosely (comparative more loosely, superlative most loosely)

  1. In a loose manner.
    • 2024 January 10, Chris Gilson, “RAIL's famous five...”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 27:
      It was an April Fool hoax, of course. 31200 had been rigged up with a single lightweight wooden [name] plate (loosely held on by Blu Tack).
  2. Not tightly.
    Insert all the bolts loosely, then tighten them.
  3. Approximately.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:approximately
    It's red, to use the term loosely, sort of brown and sort of orange, let's call it reddish.
    a comic loosely based on an Old Norse epic
    • 2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in the Guardian[1]:
      It is loosely adapted by John Hodge from Irvine Welsh’s novel Porno which imagined them coming together again 10 years on; this of course is 20.
  4. Used to indicate an imprecise use of words; short for loosely speaking
    A whale is, loosely, maybe very loosely, a fish.

Antonyms

[edit]
  • (antonym(s) of not tightly): tightly

Derived terms

[edit]

Translations

[edit]
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Anagrams

[edit]