loosely

English

Etymology

From Middle English lously; equivalent to loose +‎ -ly.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈluːsli/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -uːsli
• Hyphenation: loose‧ly

Adverb

loosely (comparative more loosely, superlative most loosely)

1. In a loose manner.
   • 2024 January 10, Chris Gilson, “RAIL's famous five...”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 27:

     It was an April Fool hoax, of course. 31200 had been rigged up with a single lightweight wooden [name] plate (loosely held on by Blu Tack).

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.

   a comic loosely based on an Old Norse epic

   • 2017 January 19, Peter Bradshaw, “T2 Trainspotting review – choose a sequel that doesn't disappoint”, in the Guardian‎^[1]:

     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

• (antonym(s) of “not tightly”): tightly

Derived terms

• loosely-typed
• sit loosely

Translations

in a loose manner

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)

approximately — see approximately

used to indicate an imprecise use of words

• Portuguese: vagamente
• Spanish: vagamente

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

Translations to be checked

• Esperanto: ^{(please verify)} malstrike

Anagrams

• Loosley, oleoyls