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Glite Dictionary
🪢 To make less tight 📜 To relax rules 🌱 To break up soil
to loosen

to loosen

15 2.8
Make soil less hard so roots can grow
  • verb
  • /ˈluːsən/
translation icon : aflojar
  • "Attaboy!" his father said, and he moved in to clear away the loosened dirt with his spade.
  • loosen the soil

And the warm vapor can also help loosen some secretions too.

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Examples

  • Start by having students do stretches to loosen the body and increase blood flow and oxygen intake.

    Academic text (2008)

  • You know, you could plant stuff like, you know, like daikon radishes and stuff and that really loosens the soil well and it will break down and add nutrients over time.

  • Before the oil goes in, we're going to loosen the cap to let air get get in.

  • So first up, I went in with that to loosen all of the dirt, get some leaves out as well.

  • You can see there it's only plastic into plastic, so I'm just going to loosen it off to begin with.

  • So I just gently with my fingers, loosen the roots up a bit, just like that.

  • You could loosen the floorboards on the way in...

    Escape to Victory (1981)

  • Donna is on her knees in the garden, loosening the soil around the rosebushes.

    Fiction book (1991)

  • Rain seeped in over the years and loosened the masonry inside, and tree roots grew in from below.

    Academic text (2006)

  • To improve the soil's condition, gardeners often use a fork to loosen the dirt before planting.

Synonyms

to relax
vsto loosen
78 1.0

To make or become less tight

breaks apart compact material to improve its condition
to soften
vsto loosen
55 1.3

Become soft or make something soft

separates compact material to improve condition instead of only reducing hardness
to soften up
vsto loosen
  • Informal
19 3.9

To make someone more willing to agree or make something easier to bend

focuses on separating compact material to improve usability rather than changing texture
to slacken
vsto loosen
1 5.5

Become or make less tight, like a rope

breaks up compact material to improve condition or usability

Antonyms

to compact
11 4.4

To press something so it becomes smaller and takes less space

Idioms

to loosen the purse strings
  • Informal
1 6.5

To allow someone to spend more money

to loosen someone's tongue
  • Informal
6.7

Make someone talk more and tell secrets

to loosen the apron strings
  • Informal
7.5

Allow a child to be more independent

Phrasal Verbs

to loosen up
  • Informal
31 3.4

To relax and become less nervous or tense

to loosen up
  • Informal
8 3.0

To make muscles less tight and more ready for exercise by stretching

How Loose

to break up
66 2.7
to loosen
15 2.8
to cultivate
38 4.0
to aerate
5 4.5

Surface Forms

loosen infinitive
loosened past
loosened past participle
loosening present participle
loosens third person singular

Morphology

loosen = loose (transparent) = loose + en

The sense 'make soil less compact' is a direct application of 'make X loose' and follows the same productive derivation.

Etymology

Loosen comes from the word loose plus the verb ending -en, which means 'to make'. So to loosen soil is to make the earth 'less compact' or more open, helping roots and seeds grow.