Wiktionary

loosely

English

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Etymology

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

Pronunciation

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Adverb

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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

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  • (antonym(s) of “not tightly”): tightly

Derived terms

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Translations

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Translations to be checked

Anagrams

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