Meaning of on the loose | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Not incarcerated or in captivity; not under control.
   idiomatic
2. Out on a spree, or in search of adventure.
   archaic, slang
3. Earning a living by prostitution.
   archaic, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“Went to a bongo party completely by mistake⟳ / there were coons and thugs and fat sheboons with all the pavement apes / When I got to the bongo party, it smelled of jenkem juice / someone left the cave door open⟳, there were chimps on the loose.”

“Sometimes he dispensed water to men who “looked as if they had been on the loose all night.””

“Those who have⟳ had good nursing, and all that, and the advantages of a sound⟳ education, who have⟳ a position to lose⟳, prospects to blight, and relations to dishonour, may be blamed for going on the loose, but I’ll be hanged if I think⟳ that priest or moralist is to come⟳ down on me with the sledge-hammer of their denunciation.”

“Many doctors practising in large cities dwell on the difficulty of checking clandestine prostitution, which is unfortunately on the increase⟳ in all crowded centres, where numbers of women are on the loose, over whom the police have⟳ little or no hold⟳.”

CEFR level