Word.ws English Dictionary

loosened the purse strings

loosened the purse strings is the simple past and past participle of loosen the purse strings.

Meaning of loosen the purse strings

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

Questions about loosened the purse strings

What is loosened the purse strings the simple past and past participle of?
Loosened the purse strings is the simple past and past participle of loosen the purse strings.

Words near loosened the purse strings in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loosened the purse strings (page history and authors); 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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