loosen up
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Compare Old Norse leysa upp (“loosen up”).
Verb
[edit]loosen up (third-person singular simple present loosens up, present participle loosening up, simple past and past participle loosened up)
- (intransitive) To become loose; to loosen; to relax (a muscle, etc.).
- (colloquial) To relax; to act less seriously.
- 1983 December 31, Kenneth Hale-Wehmann, “The Business of Sex and Affection”, in Gay Community News, volume 11, number 24, page 8:
- Michael in turn benefits from Tom. He loosens up a bit, stops talking so much like one of the bad novels he used to read, and learns to give his intellect a rest once in a while in deference to the emotions.