Word.ws English Dictionary

loosen the purse strings

loosen the purse strings verb: to increase spending or allow increased spending; to relax control of spending.

Verb

loosen the purse strings (third-person singular simple present loosens the purse strings, present participle loosening the purse strings, simple past and past participle loosened the purse strings)

  1. (colloquial, idiomatic) To increase spending or allow increased spending; to relax control of spending.
    • He thought the effect of this language from the Prime Minister had been to loosen the purse-strings of the Treasury.1848, Parliament of Great Britain, “The Parliamentary debates”, in (Please provide the book title or journal name), volume 96, page cdlvii
    • Proponents of the counterterrorism agenda might respond by being less inclined to loosen the purse strings than they would have been if offered a convincing...2004, The 9/11 Commission report, final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States (authorized edition), National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United...

Antonyms of loosen the purse strings

Forms of loosen the purse strings

third-person singular presentloosens the purse strings
present participleloosening the purse strings
past participleloosened the purse strings
pastloosened the purse strings
alternative formloosen the pursestrings
alternative formloosen the purse-strings

Questions about loosen the purse strings

What does loosen the purse strings mean?
Loosen the purse strings means to increase spending or allow increased spending; to relax control of spending.
What part of speech is loosen the purse strings?
Loosen the purse strings is a verb.
What is the past tense of loosen the purse strings?
The past tense of loosen the purse strings is loosened the purse strings.

Words near loosen the purse strings in the dictionary

  1. loosen
  2. loosen one's tongue
  3. loosen someone's lips
  4. loosen someone's tongue
  5. loosen the apron strings
  6. loosen the purse strings
  7. loosen up
  8. loosenable
  9. loosened
  10. loosened someone's tongue
  11. loosened the apron strings

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loosen the purse strings (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-loosen the purse strings.ogg.

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