loose

«loose» in Mova's school dictionary: not tight: loose clothes, a loose belt — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 5 sentences of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

adjective (loose, looser, loosest); adverb (loose); verb (loosen)

meaning for a pupil

1) Loose means not tight: loose clothes, a loose belt. tree →

2) Loose means not fixed firmly: a loose tooth, a loose screw. tree →

3) Loose means not packed in a box or bag: loose pencils, loose change. tree →

4) Loose means free, not tied up or shut in: the dog got loose. tree →

5) To loose something means to untie it or set it free. tree →

sense in the lessons

In maths it means things not in packs, counted apart from those in packs: boxes × size + loose. In everyday life: a loose tooth before a new one grows, loose change (coins), shoelaces coming loose. In safety: tie back loose hair near machines; a dog on the loose can be dangerous.

examples

• He has 3 boxes of 10 pencils and 4 loose pencils. tree →
• How many pencils in all? tree →
• She has 2 loose teeth. tree →
• 7 loose coins were in his pocket. tree →
• My shoelace came loose, so I tied it again. tree →
• These jeans are too loose; I need a belt. tree →
• The goat broke its rope and got loose. tree →
• A loose board on the bridge creaked. tree →
• Tie back loose hair in the science lab. tree →
• Loose it, and let it go.’ tree →

note

Spelling trap: «loose» (not tight, rhymes with goose) is not «lose» (to stop having, to not win). Verb: «loosen» (make looser); «let loose» means set free. Maths: loose items are added to the packed ones. Trap: do not multiply the loose ones by the box size.

In the corpora

• Loose brushwork, holding the brush further from the bristles, often makes paintings look more alive.
• Young males leave the family at around 10 to 15 years old and live alone or in loose groups of males.
• A loose wide tail wag usually means a happy dog, but a stiff high wag can mean the dog is tense.
• Sea otters smash shellfish on a stone laid on the chest and keep a favourite stone in a loose skin pocket under the arm.
• Heat, stirring and small grains all make dissolving faster, which is why loose sugar vanishes before a sugar cube does.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «loose» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.