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to cut loose

to cut loose

18 4.4
To have fun and act without control, or to remove someone from their job
  • phrasal verb
  • /kʌt luːs/
  • Informal
translation icon : desvincular (separar de responsabilidades)
  • During the music festival, everyone was able to cut loose and enjoy the lively atmosphere.

So my suggestion for teaching high school CAD would and you want to create a creative design environment is let them cut loose.

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Examples

  • After a long week at work, I love to cut loose with my friends at the party.

  • A Latin band cuts loose as beautiful people mill about against a beautiful Chicago skyline.

    Fiction book (1991)
  • All the better to cut loose and say whatever she wanted.

    Academic text (2010)
  • Never hurts to cut loose now and then.

  • Don't you ever just want to cut loose and go wild?

    Fiction book (1993)
  • How empowered and free are they to cut loose and make the contributions they want to make?

    Blog text (2)
  • It's Spring Break, y'all, time to cut loose, on Panama City Beach.

  • Six months and a handful of paperwork later, I found myself cut loose, afloat in a sea of inertia.

    Fiction book (2001)
  • Every once in a while, though, he would cut loose, usually with Israeli folk music ornamented with wild, playful wailings.

    Fiction book (1997)
  • It's important to cut loose sometimes and not worry about responsibilities.

Synonyms

to release
vsto cut loose
1.8

To let someone or something go free from being held

adds a social sense of abandoning restraint for fun or relief
to let go
vsto cut loose
1.4

To stop holding something or someone so they are free

applies that stopping plus freeing from duties and encouraging carefree behaviour
to let out
vsto cut loose
344 1.1

Allow someone or something to leave a place

stresses both departure and a relaxed, unrestrained manner of action
to free
vsto cut loose
337 1.0

To release someone or something that is held

focuses more on relieving duty and encouraging carefree behaviour
to set free
vsto cut loose
218 2.7

To let a person or animal go after keeping them in a place where they could not leave

includes that liberty plus an informal dropping of obligations for enjoyment
to loose
vsto cut loose
30 3.0

To let something go free or make it less tight

also implies shedding duties and enjoying greater personal freedom
to let loose
vsto cut loose
  • Informal
12 3.9

Relax and enjoy yourself without worrying

adds letting go of responsibilities and a sense of carefree enjoyment
to break free from
vsto cut loose
11 4.1

To escape limits or control and become independent

emphasises being allowed freedom and enjoying lack of responsibility rather than fleeing
to break loose
vsto cut loose
8 3.9

To force yourself free from a place or person

involves voluntary release and often joyful, uninhibited conduct rather than force
to untether
vsto cut loose
1 6.2

To free someone or something from limits so they can act more freely

allows release while also encouraging playful, uninhibited behaviour
to cast loose
vsto cut loose
1 6.7

To free something by letting go of ties or limits

extends detachment to letting go of responsibilities and restraint for fun

Antonyms

215 4.2

Keep someone or something within limits, for example in a small space

86 4.6

Hold a person or thing so it cannot move freely

How Free

to liberate
104 4.3
to release
1.8
to cut loose
  • Informal
18 4.4
to let go
1.4
to loosen
88 1.0

Surface Forms

cut loose infinitive
cut loose past
cut loose past participle
cutting loose present participle
cuts loose third person singular

Morphology

cut + loose

The core meaning 'to release or set free' follows from combining 'cut' (to sever/remove) with 'loose' (free), so a learner who knows the constituents can reasonably infer the basic sense. However, extended figurative senses (e.g., 'to behave without inhibition' or idiomatic uses like dismissing someone) involve metaphorical shifts that are not fully predictable without exposure, so the expression is not fully transparent.

Etymology

Cut loose may come from the image of sailors who cut the rope that held a boat so it became loose and could sail away and be free. So today cut loose means 'to set someone or something free' or 'to behave freely and without control'.