loose man
- noun
- Offensive
:
mujeriego
- Despite his charming demeanor, many viewed him as a loose man due to his numerous affairs.
Examples
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Her friends warned her about dating him because he had a reputation as a loose man.
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He was known around town as a loose man who often cheated on his girlfriends.
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George was a big and loose man who never quite had the air of running a company or anything else.
Fiction book (2000)
Antonyms
How Faithful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The meaning is largely built from the adjective 'loose' (unrestrained in morals/behavior) combined with 'man', so a learner who knows the moral sense of 'loose' can infer a man with lax sexual/moral behaviour. However, the specific nuance of sexual promiscuity or unfaithfulness is a culturally marked extension and may not be fully predictable to a B1 learner without exposure, so it is only partially transparent.
Etymology
Loose man comes from the image of loose meaning 'not tied down' or 'not held to rules', so the man seems free to act as he likes. That's why a loose man means 'sexually promiscuous' or 'unfaithful' today.