[syn: profligacy, dissipation, dissolution, licentiousness, looseness]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Looseness \Loose"ness\, n.
The state, condition, or quality, of being loose; as, the
looseness of a cord; looseness of style; looseness of morals
or of principles.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
looseness
n 1: frequent and watery bowel movements; can be a symptom of
infection or food poisoning or colitis or a
gastrointestinal tumor [syn: diarrhea, diarrhoea,
looseness of the bowels, looseness]
2: freedom from restraint; "the flexibility and looseness of the
materials from which mythology is made"
3: a lack of strict accuracy; laxity of practice;
"misunderstandings can often be traced to a looseness of
expression"
4: the quality of movability by virtue of being free from
attachment or other restraints [ant: fastness, fixedness,
fixity, fixture, secureness]
5: movement or space for movement; "there was too much play in
the steering wheel" [syn: looseness, play] [ant:
tautness, tightness]
6: dissolute indulgence in sensual pleasure [syn: profligacy,
dissipation, dissolution, licentiousness, looseness]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
153 Moby Thesaurus words for "looseness":
Bohemianism, affability, allowance, amorphousness, approximation,
bagginess, blobbiness, blowziness, blurriness, broadness,
carelessness, casualness, chambering, chintziness, common touch,
cordiality, culpa, culpable negligence, default, dereliction,
deviation, disorder, disregard, dowdiness, ease, easiness,
easy virtue, easygoingness, failure, familiarity, flabbiness,
flaccidity, flaccidness, floppiness, fogginess, folksiness,
frowziness, frumpishness, fuzziness, generality, graciousness,
grubbiness, haziness, homeliness, homeyness, ill-definedness,
impotence, imprecision, inaccuracy, inaccurateness, inadvertence,
inadvertency, inattention, inchoateness, incoherence,
incorrectness, indecisiveness, indefinableness, indefiniteness,
indeterminateness, indifference, indistinctness, inexactitude,
inexactness, informality, informalness, irregularity, laches,
laissez-faire, lapse, laxation, laxity, laxness, leniency,
lightness, limpness, loose morals, loosening, messiness, mistiness,
naturalness, neglect, neglectfulness, negligence, nonfeasance,
noninterference, nonperformance, nonrestriction, obscuration,
obscurity, offhandedness, omission, overindulgence, overlooking,
overpermissiveness, oversight, permissiveness, plainness,
poor stewardship, predictable error, probable error,
procrastination, promiscuity, relaxation, relaxedness, remissness,
ricketiness, rubberiness, seediness, shabbiness, shakiness,
shapelessness, shoddiness, simplicity, slackness, slatternliness,
sleeping around, slight, slipshodness, sloppiness, slovenliness,
slovenry, sluttishness, sociability, softness, sordidness,
squalidness, squalor, standard deviation, sweepingness, swinging,
tackiness, tawdriness, tolerance, unaffectedness,
unceremoniousness, unclearness, unconstrainedness, unconstraint,
unconventionality, uncorrectness, unfactualness, unneatness,
unpreciseness, unpretentiousness, unrestraint, unrigorousness,
untidiness, vagueness, wantonness, waywardness, weakness,
whorishness