loosen (sb) up
— phrasal verb with loosen uk/ˈluː.sən/us/ˈluː.sən/verb
C2 to start to feel less embarrassed and to become more relaxed when you are with other people, or to make someone feel like this:
He seemed quite nervous at the beginning, but he soon loosened up.
A gin and tonic will loosen you up.
Thesaurus: synonyms and related words
Liberating, relaxing and releasing
- chillax
- decontrol
- deregulate
- emancipate
- exempt
- free
- get
- let/set sth loose idiom
- liberate
- loose
- loosen
- loosen sb's tongue idiom 1
- loosen sb's tongue
- relax your grip/hold idiom
- release
- unbind
- unconfined
- unhand
- untethered
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