Word.ws English Dictionary

loosening the purse strings

loosening the purse strings is the present participle and gerund 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 loosening the purse strings

What is loosening the purse strings the present participle and gerund of?
Loosening the purse strings is the present participle and gerund of loosen the purse strings.

Words near loosening the purse strings in the dictionary

  1. loosenest
  2. looseneth
  3. loosening
  4. loosening someone's tongue
  5. loosening the apron strings
  6. loosening the purse strings
  7. loosening up
  8. loosening ups
  9. loosenings
  10. loosens
  11. loosens someone's tongue

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: loosening 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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