loosening
noun
- act or process of becoming or causing to become loose
Wiktionary
noun
- The act of making something looser.
“Turning to metaphor, the loosenings involved in metaphorical interpretation tend not to be pure but to involve a change that results in the extension of the loosened concept overlapping with but not including all of the denotations of the pre-loosened concept.”
verb
- present participle and gerund of loosen