| loose | 1. Unbound; untied; unsewed; not attached, fastened, fixed, or confined; as, the loose sheets of a book. "Her hair, nor loose, nor tied in formal plat." (Shak) 2. Free from constraint or obligation; not bound by duty, habit, etc.; with from or of. "Now I stand Loose of my vow; but who knows Cato's thoughts ?" (Addison) 3. Not tight or close; as, a loose garment. 4. Not dense, close, compact, or crowded; as, a cloth of loose texture. "With horse and chariots ranked in loose array." (Milton) 5. Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose style, or way of reasoning. "The comparison employed . . . Must be considered rather as a loose analogy than as an exact scientific explanation." (Whewel) 6. Not strict in matters of morality; not rigid according to some standard of right. "The loose morality which he had learned." (Sir W. Scott) 7. Unconnected; rambling. "Vario spends whole mornings in running over loose and unconnected pages." (I. Watts) 8. Lax; not costive; having lax bowels. 9. Dissolute; unchaste; as, a loose man or woman. "Loose ladies in delight." (Spenser) 10. Containing or consisting of obscene or unchaste language; as, a loose epistle. at loose ends, not in order; in confusion; carelessly managed. Fast and loose. See Fast. To break loose. See Break. Loose pulley. <machinery> See Fast and loose pulleys, under Fast. To let loose, to free from restraint or confinement; to set at liberty. Origin: OE. Loos, lous, laus, Icel. Lauss; akin to OD. Loos, D. Los, AS. Leas false, deceitful, G. Los, loose, Dan. & Sw. Los, Goth. Laus, and E. Lose. See Lose, and cf. Leasing falsehood. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| loose associations | A manifestation of a thought disorder whereby the patient's responses do not relate to the interviewer's questions or one paragraph, sentence, or phrase is not logically connected to those that occur before or after. (05 Mar 2000) |
| loose body | A solid tissue fragment lying free in a body cavity, especially in a joint or the peritoneal cavity; e.g., joint mice, melon-seed body, rice body. (05 Mar 2000) |
| loose cartilage | A loose piece of cartilage within a joint cavity, detached from the articular cartilage or from a meniscus. Synonym: loose cartilage. (05 Mar 2000) |
| loose skin | A group of connective tissue diseases in which skin hangs in loose pendulous folds. It is believed to be associated with decreased elastic tissue formation as well as an abnormality in elastin formation. Cutis laxa is usually a genetic disease, but acquired cases have been reported. (12 Dec 1998) |
| loosen | 1. To make loose; to free from tightness, tension, firmness, or fixedness; to make less dense or compact; as, to loosen a string, or a knot; to loosen a rock in the earth. "After a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree good by loosening of the earth." (Bacon) 2. To free from restraint; to set at liberty. "It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding." (Dryden) 3. To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the alvine discharges of. Origin: See Loose. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| loosening of association | A manifestation of a severe thought disorder characterised by the lack of an obvious connection between one thought or phrase and the next, or with the response to a question. (05 Mar 2000) |
| loosening of associations | A loss of the normal logical connections between one thought and the next, thus the schizophrenic speech is vague, rambling, disjointed or nonsensical. (27 Sep 1997) |
| Looser's lines | Radiolucent bands in the cortex of a bone; usually indicates osteomalacia. Synonym: Looser's zones. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Looser's zones | Radiolucent bands in the cortex of a bone; usually indicates osteomalacia. Synonym: Looser's zones. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Looser, Emil | <person> Swiss physician, 1877-1936. See: Looser's zones. (05 Mar 2000) |
| loosestrife | <botany> The name of several species of plants of the genus Lysimachia, having small star-shaped flowers, usually of a yellow colour. Any species of the genus Lythrum, having purple, or, in some species, crimson flowers. False loosestrife, a plant of the genus Ludwigia, which includes several species, most of which are found in the United States. Tufted loosestrife, the plant Lysimachia thyrsiflora, found in the northern parts of the United States and in Europe. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| joint loose bodies | Fibrous, bony, cartilaginous and osteocartilaginous fragments in a synovial joint. Major causes are osteochondritis dissecans, synovial chondromatosis, osteophytes, fractured articular surfaces and damaged menisci. (12 Dec 1998) |
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