loosely

loosely

English

Etymology

loose +‎ -ly

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈluːsli/
• Hyphenation: loose‧ly

Adverb

loosely (comparative more loosely, superlative most loosely)

1. In a loose manner.
2. Not tightly.

   Insert all the bolts loosely, then tighten them.

3. Approximately.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:approximately

   It's red, to use the term loosely, sort of brown and sort of orange, let's call it reddish.

   • 2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in the Guardian‎:

     It is loosely adapted by John Hodge from Irvine Welsh’s novel Porno which imagined them coming together again 10 years on; this of course is 20.

4. Used to indicate an imprecise use of words; short for loosely speaking

   A whale is, loosely, maybe very loosely, a fish.

Antonyms

• (not tightly): tightly

Translations

not tightly

Catalan: en termes generals, sense ésser estrictes Czech: volně (cs) Dutch: ruim (nl) Finnish: löysästi (fi), irtonaisesti French: sans serrer

Ido: ample (io) Italian: allentato (it) Polish: luźno (pl) Romanian: lejer (ro) Russian: свобо́дно (ru) (svobódno), нежёстко (nežóstko), без сцепле́ния (bez sceplénija)

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Translations to be checked

Esperanto: (please verify) malstrike

Anagrams

• oleoyls