What's the difference between firm and loose?

Firm


Definition:

  • (superl.) Fixed; hence, closely compressed; compact; substantial; hard; solid; -- applied to the matter of bodies; as, firm flesh; firm muscles, firm wood.
  • (superl.) Not easily excited or disturbed; unchanging in purpose; fixed; steady; constant; stable; unshaken; not easily changed in feelings or will; strong; as, a firm believer; a firm friend; a firm adherent.
  • (superl.) Solid; -- opposed to fluid; as, firm land.
  • (superl.) Indicating firmness; as, a firm tread; a firm countenance.
  • (a.) The name, title, or style, under which a company transacts business; a partnership of two or more persons; a commercial house; as, the firm of Hope & Co.
  • (a.) To fix; to settle; to confirm; to establish.
  • (a.) To fix or direct with firmness.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Villagers, including one man who has been left disabled and the relatives of six men who were killed, are suing ABG in the UK high court, represented by British law firm Leigh Day, alleging that Tanzanian police officers shot unarmed locals.
  • (2) However, direct measurements of mediator release should be carried out to reach a firm conclusion.
  • (3) Video games specialist Game was teetering on the brink of collapse on Friday after a rescue deal put forward by private equity firm OpCapita appeared to have been given the cold shoulder by lenders who are owed more than £100m.
  • (4) One is that the issue of whether the World Cup should go ahead in Russia and Qatar still firmly remains on the table.
  • (5) Neil Blessitt Bristol • We need to establish what the legal position is with regard to the establishment by the government of a private company co-owned by the Department of Health and the French firm Sopra Steria.
  • (6) Particular attention has been paid to diabetes mellitus and chronic pancreatitis, but a firm conclusion cannot be drawn.
  • (7) Pupils who disrupt the learning of their classmates are dealt with firmly and, in many cases, a short suspension is an effective way of nipping bad behaviour in the bud."
  • (8) Cloning of the A-T allele(s) will assist in the early or prenatal diagnosis of A-T and provide a firm basis for determining who, in the general population, carries this gene and is therefore at a high risk of cancer.
  • (9) We are firmly opposed to that," an unidentified spokesman from the ministry of industry and information technology told the state news agency, Xinhua.
  • (10) Officers arrested her last month during the protest against oil drilling by the energy firm Cuadrilla at Balcombe in West Sussex – a demonstration Lucas has attended several times.
  • (11) "At the moment there are about 1,600 criminal justice firms, and they all have a contract with the lord chancellor.
  • (12) VAT increases don't just hit the poor more than the rich, they also hit small firms, threaten retail jobs and, by boosting inflation, could also lead to higher interest rates."
  • (13) Her story is an incredible tale of triumph over tragedy: a tormented childhood during China's Cultural Revolution, detention and forced exile after exposing female infanticide – then glittering success as the head of a major US technology firm.
  • (14) We firmly believe that a systematic approach to the 12-lead ECG can provide information that can diagnose the difference between ventricular and supraventricular tachycardia, and in many instances diagnose the mechanism and site of origin of the supraventricular tachycardia.
  • (15) Terry Waite Chair, Benedict Birnberg Deputy chair, Antonio Ferrara CEO The Prisons Video Trust • If I want to build a bridge, I call in a firm of civil engineers who specialise in bridge-building.
  • (16) The court hearing – in a case of the kind likely to be heard in secret if the government's justice and security bill is passed – was requested by the law firm Leigh Day and the legal charity Reprieve, acting for Serdar Mohammed, tortured by the Afghan security services after being transferred to their custody by UK forces.
  • (17) Doubts about Hinkley Point have deepened after a detailed report by HSBC’s energy analysts described eight key challenges to the project, which will be built by the state-backed French firm EDF and be part-financed by investment from China .
  • (18) China's relations with the NTC were strained last week when it emerged Chinese arms firms had talked to Muammar Gaddafi's representatives about weapons sales .
  • (19) It may not point to independence – nor, given that large swaths of Wales remain firmly dominated by Labour, mean any huge advance for Plaid Cymru.
  • (20) In order to identify these anchorage structures, the non-DNA materials that remain firmly bound to chromosomal DNA under conditions that disintegrate the high salt-stable architecture of nuclei were investigated.

Loose


Definition:

  • (superl.) Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as, a loose style, or way of reasoning.
  • (superl.) Unbound; untied; unsewed; not attached, fastened, fixed, or confined; as, the loose sheets of a book.
  • (superl.) Free from constraint or obligation; not bound by duty, habit, etc. ; -- with from or of.
  • (superl.) Not tight or close; as, a loose garment.
  • (superl.) Not dense, close, compact, or crowded; as, a cloth of loose texture.
  • (superl.) Not strict in matters of morality; not rigid according to some standard of right.
  • (superl.) Unconnected; rambling.
  • (superl.) Lax; not costive; having lax bowels.
  • (superl.) Dissolute; unchaste; as, a loose man or woman.
  • (superl.) Containing or consisting of obscene or unchaste language; as, a loose epistle.
  • (n.) Freedom from restraint.
  • (n.) A letting go; discharge.
  • (a.) To untie or unbind; to free from any fastening; to remove the shackles or fastenings of; to set free; to relieve.
  • (a.) To release from anything obligatory or burdensome; to disengage; hence, to absolve; to remit.
  • (a.) To relax; to loosen; to make less strict.
  • (a.) To solve; to interpret.
  • (v. i.) To set sail.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Factors associated with higher incidence of rejection included loose sutures, traumatic wound dehiscence, and grafts larger than 8.5 mm.
  • (2) He is a leader and helps manage the defence, while Pablo Armero can be a bit of a loose cannon but he is certainly a talented player.
  • (3) This study investigates the use of the incentive inspirometer to observe the effects of tight versus loose clothing on inhalation volume with 17 volunteer subjects.
  • (4) Security forces have also tried to wrest back the Sunni stronghold of Tikrit from a loose alliance of Isis fighters, other jihadist groups and former Saddam Hussein loyalists.
  • (5) His shot, though, was pawed on to the inside of the post by David Marshall and it was left to Victor Wanyama to lash the loose ball into the empty net.
  • (6) We had our bicycles and we were just turned loose all day.
  • (7) Our model is a development of previous models, but differs in several respects: the overall activity is assumed to be dependent on the error level, the effect of errors in the translating system, giving rise to additional errors in the succeeding generation of products, is explicitly included as a special term in our model, and scavenging enzymes are assumed to break down and eliminate products with a loose structure.
  • (8) Clearance into the mediastinum may be the major pathway for liquid sequestered in the loose, binding connective tissue.
  • (9) Two tibial components (2%) were believed to be mechanically loose, but no revisions for mechanical loosening were done.
  • (10) The results indicate that the optimal cruciform loop size is four bases, with loose 'breathing' at the first base pair at the top of the cruciform stem at 37 degrees C, and little or no opening of base pairs at the four-way junction.
  • (11) Theresa May’s plan for a loose alliance with the Democratic Unionists to prop up her government was thrown into confusion on Saturday night after the Northern Ireland party contradicted a No 10 announcement that a deal had been reached.
  • (12) We have also confirmed loose linkage with the marker (Mfd22, locus D4S171) used to establish the initial assignment of the disorder to chromosome 4.
  • (13) As demonstrated by Ficoll density gradient centrifugation and HPLC gel filtration, the cholate dialysis method made the reductase bind tightly to the liposomal membranes, while the incubation with the preformed vesicles made the reductase bind loosely to the membranes.
  • (14) In its more loose, common usage, it's a game in which the rivalry has come to acquire the mad, rancorous intensity of a Celtic-Rangers, a Real Madrid-Barcelona, an Arsenal-Tottenham, a River Plate-Boca Juniors.
  • (15) Twenty-one of 24 adult male and female cattle egrets (Bubulcus ibis ibis) collected in Geneva County, Alabama had numerous white cyst-like structures (1,466 microns X 354 microns) found within the loose connective tissues of the skeletal muscles of the inguinal region, beneath the serosa of the proventriculus and in the heart beneath the epicardium (one adult male bird).
  • (16) SCLC variant lines could further be divided into (a) biochemical variant lines having variant biochemical profile but retaining typical SCLC morphology and growth characteristics; and (b) morphological variant (SCLC-MV) lines having variant biochemical profile, altered morphology (features of large cell undifferentiated carcinoma) and altered growth characteristics (growth as loosely attached floating aggregates, relatively short doubling times and cloning efficiencies).
  • (17) At rostral levels, one third of the tracts are loosely built forming a king of curtain, while they become more compact at caudal levels.
  • (18) (1) The prerequisite for development of cholesteatoma is a cholesteatoma bed, that is a loose subepithelial connective tissue layer which acts as a nutrient bed and makes papillary growth of squamous epithelium possible.
  • (19) His mother is Denise Welch, late of Corrie and Loose Women, and his father his Tim Healy, who was briefly famous 30 years ago for his role in Auf Wiedersehen, Pet.
  • (20) Initially, 4-5 days post-operative, the plasma clot maintained the grafted cells in a loose sponge-like sack at the site of implantation.