Word.ws English Dictionary

loosened

loosened is the simple past and past participle of loosen.

Meaning of loosen

Verb

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

  1. (transitive) To make loose.
    • to loosen a knot; to loosen one's grip / hold on something
    Synonyms:
    ease, relax, untighten
  2. (intransitive) To become loose.
    • I noticed that my seatbelt had gradually loosened during the journey.
  3. (transitive) To disengage (a device that restrains).
    • At Liberty th’ unfetter’d Captive stands,
      And flings the loosen’d Shackles from his Hands.1717, Joseph Addison, transl., Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books, translated by the most eminent hands, London: Jacob Tonson, Book 3, p. 99
    Synonyms:
    undo, unfasten
  4. (intransitive) To become unfastened or undone.
    • Immediately my Shackles loosened and fell away of themselves […]1770, Henry Brooke, The Fool of Quality, volume 5, Dublin, page 52
  5. (transitive) To free from restraint; to set at liberty.
    • This is an admirable Rule; a Painter ought to have it perpetually present in his Mind and Memory. […] it loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.1695, Charles Alphonse du Fresnoy, translated by John Dryden, De Arte Graphica, London: W. Rogers, page 185
  6. (transitive) To relieve (the bowels) from constipation; to promote defecation.
    • […] Feare looseneth the Belly; because the Heat retiring inwards towards the Heart, the Gutts and other Parts are relaxed;1626, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or A Naturall Historie, London: William Lee, Century 1, p. 14

See all 8 meanings of loosen

Adjective

loosened (comparative more loosened, superlative most loosened)

  1. Having been made less tight or more relaxed.

Forms of loosened

comparativemore loosened
superlativemost loosened

Phrases with loosened

Questions about loosened

What does loosened mean?
Loosened means having been made less tight or more relaxed.
What is loosened the simple past and past participle of?
Loosened is the simple past and past participle of loosen.
What part of speech is loosened?
Loosened is an adjective.

Words near loosened in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loosened (page history and authors); loosen (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-us-loosened.ogg.

Cite this entry: “loosened.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/loosened. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.