loosening

loosening
    n 1: an occurrence of control or strength weakening; "the
         relaxation of requirements"; "the loosening of his grip";
         "the slackening of the wind" [syn: {relaxation},
         {loosening}, {slackening}]
    2: the act of making something less tight [syn: {loosening},
       {laxation}] [ant: {tightening}]
    

Loosen \Loos"en\ (l[=oo]s"'n), v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Loosened}
   (l[=oo]s"'nd); p. pr. & vb. n. {Loosening}.] [See {Loose}, v.
   t.]
   1. To make loose; to free from tightness, tension, firmness,
      or fixedness; to make less dense or compact; as, to loosen
      a string, or a knot; to loosen a rock in the earth.
      [1913 Webster]

            After a year's rooting, then shaking doth the tree
            good by loosening of the earth.       --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To free from restraint; to set at liberty..
      [1913 Webster]

            It loosens his hands, and assists his understanding.
                                                  --Dryden.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. To remove costiveness from; to facilitate or increase the
      alvine discharges of. --Bacon.
      [1913 Webster]
    

62 Moby Thesaurus words for "loosening":
      abatement, allayment, alleviation, assuagement, blunting, calming,
      carelessness, damping, deadening, demulcent, demulsion, diminution,
      dulcification, dulling, easiness, easing, easygoingness, emollient,
      falling-off, hushing, impotence, imprecision, indifference, laxity,
      laxness, leniency, lessening, letdown, letup, lightening,
      looseness, lulling, mitigation, modulation, mollification,
      mollifying, negligence, overindulgence, overpermissiveness,
      pacification, palliation, permissiveness, quietening, quieting,
      reduction, relaxation, relaxedness, relaxing, remission,
      remissness, slackening, slackness, sloppiness, softening, softness,
      soothing, subduement, subduing, tempering, tranquilization,
      unrestraint, weakness