loosely

adv

Etymology: From Middle English lously; equivalent to loose + -ly.

1. In a loose manner.

   “Then she fell back on the altar and her fingers dangled loosely on its edge, her feet uncrossed and lay beside each other.”

   “It was an April Fool hoax, of course. 31200 had been rigged up with a single lightweight wooden [name] plate (loosely held on by Blu Tack).”

2. Not tightly.

   “Insert all the bolts loosely, then tighten them.”

3. Approximately.

   “It's red, to use the term loosely, sort of brown and sort of orange, let's call it reddish.”

   “a comic loosely based on an Old Norse epic”

4. Used to indicate an imprecise use of words; short for loosely speaking

   “A whale is, loosely, maybe very loosely, a fish.”