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Loosen vs Loosening - What's the difference?

loosen | loosening |

As verbs the difference between loosen and loosening

is that loosen is to make loose while loosening is .

As a noun loosening is

the act of making something looser.

loosen

English

Verb

(en verb)
  • To make loose.
    • to loosen a knot
    After the Thanksgiving meal, Bill loosened his belt.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • After a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree good by loosening of the earth.
  • To free from restraint; to set at liberty.
  • * Dryden
    • It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.
  • To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of.
    • (Francis Bacon)

    Antonyms

    * tighten

    Derived terms

    * loosen the apron strings * loosen the purse strings * loosener

    Related terms

    * loose * unloosen

    See also

    * lose English ergative verbs

    loosening

    English

    Verb

    (head)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • The act of making something looser.
  • * 2013 , Michael Scott, Religious Language (page 169)
    • Turning to metaphor, the loosenings involved in metaphorical interpretation tend not to be pure but to involve a change that results in the extension of the loosened concept overlapping with but not including all of the denotations of the pre-loosened concept.

    Anagrams

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