ppl. a. [f. LOOSEN v. + -ED1.] In senses of the vb.; slackened, relaxed; rendered loose or easily detachable; also dial. liberated from service.
1680. Dryden, Ovid’s Ep., vii. 9. While you, with loosen’d Sails, and Vows, prepare To seek a Land, that flies the Searchers Care. Ibid. (1697), Virg. Georg., III. 307. He scours along the Field, with loosen’d Reins.
1755. J. G. Cooper, Estimate of Life, III. 64, in Dodsley, Coll. Poems, III. 224. Despair, that hellish fiend, proceeds From loosen’d thoughts, and impious deeds.
1798. Landor, Gebir, II. 136. His chaplets mingled with her loosened hair.
1821. Joanna Baillie, Metr. Leg., Lord John, xxix. But his loosen’d limbs shook fast.
1845. Mrs. S. C. Hall, Whiteboy, xi. 91. Then will come the loosened soldier.
1855. Browning, Transcendentalism, 25. He … turned with loosened tongue to talk with him.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. xxv. 185. The loosened avalanches … upon the mountain heads.
