Word.ws English Dictionary

give a loose

give a loose verb: to give vent (to), to let loose (unrestrained feelings, emotions etc.).

Verb

give a loose (third-person singular simple present gives a loose, present participle giving a loose, simple past gave a loose, past participle given a loose)

  1. (archaic) To give vent (to), to let loose (unrestrained feelings, emotions etc.).
    • There I began to breathe a little freer, and to give a loose to those warm emotions which the sight of such an encounter had raised in me.1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Penguin, published 1985, page 64

Forms of give a loose

third-person singular presentgives a loose
present participlegiving a loose
pastgave a loose
past participlegiven a loose

Questions about give a loose

What does give a loose mean?
Give a loose means to give vent (to), to let loose (unrestrained feelings, emotions etc.).
What part of speech is give a loose?
Give a loose is a verb.
What is the past tense of give a loose?
The past tense of give a loose is gave a loose.

Words near give a loose in the dictionary

  1. give a hoot
  2. give a hundred percent
  3. give a jackstraw
  4. give a knee
  5. give a light
  6. give a loose
  7. give a man a fish
  8. give a man a fish and you feed him for a day; teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime
  9. give a monkey's
  10. give a rat's arse
  11. give a rat's ass

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: give a loose (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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