give a loose

give a loose (third-person singular simple present gives a loose, present participle giving a loose, simple past gave a loose, past participle given a loose)

1. (now rare) To give vent (to), to let loose (unrestrained feelings, emotions etc.).
   • 1749, John Cleland, Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure, Penguin, published 1985, page 64:

     There I began to breathe a little freer, and to give a loose to those warm emotions which the sight of such an encounter had raised in me.