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Word study

Greek

To loose

λύωStrong’s G3089

luō

Appears in 41 verses of the New Testament

In short

Luō is the Greek word usually translated “untie”, “shall loose” and “loosed”. It appears in 41 verses of the New Testament.

“But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burned up.”
2 Peter 3:10 KJV
Meaning

Usually translated “untie”, “shall loose” and “loosed”. Open the dictionary entry below for the full range of meaning, with the verses it cites.

How it's translated
  • to untie 4
  • you shall loose 2
  • loosed 2
  • having untied 2
  • shall break 1
  • was loosed 1
  • do untie 1
  • they untied 1

Word-by-word English from the STEPBible tagged text.

Where it's used most
  • Acts 7
  • Revelation 7
  • Luke 6
  • John 6
  • Mark 5
  • Matthew 4

10 books in all.

Related words
Explore in Scripture
All 41 verses, by book
1 Corinthians 1
7:27
Ephesians 1
2:14
2 Peter 3
3:103:113:12
1 John 1
3:8
Greek dictionary

λύω luō · to loose

λύω [in LXX for פָּתַח, נָתַר hi., etc. ;] 1. to loose, unbind, release: of things, Mrk.1:7, Luk.3:16, al.; of beasts, Mat.21:2, Luk.13:15, al.; of persons, Jhn.11:44, Act.22:30; of Satan, Rev.20:3, 7; metaphorically, of the marriage tie, 1Co.7:27; of one diseased, Luk.13:16; of release from sin, Rev.1:5, WH, R, txt. (see: λούω). …

From STEPBible’s Greek lexicon (based on Abbott-Smith).

Webster's 1828 Dictionary

How the English word “loose” was understood when the King James Version was still the common Bible of English readers.

LOOSE, verb transitive

loos. [Gr.; Heb.]

  1. To untie or unbind; to free from any fastening.“Canst thou loose the bands of Orion?” Job 38:31“Ye shall find an ass tied, and a colt with her; loose them, and bring them to me” Matthew 21:2
  2. To relax.“The joints of his loins were loosed” Daniel 5:6
  3. To release from imprisonment; to liberate; to set at liberty.“The captive exile hasteneth that he may be loosed” Isaiah 51:14
  4. To free from obligation.“Art thou loosed from a wife? see not a wife” 1 Corinthians 7:27
All definitions and other forms of “loose”
  1. To free from any thing that binds or shackles; as a man loosed from lust and pelf.
  2. To relieve; to free from any thing burdensome or afflictive.“Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity” Luke 13:12
  3. To disengage; to detach; as, to loose one's hold.
  4. To put off.“LOOSE thy shoe from off thy foot” Joshua 5:15
  5. To open.“Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof?” Revelation 5:2
  6. To remit; to absolve.“Whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth, shall be loosed in heaven” Matthew 16:19

LOOSE, verb intransitive

To set sail; to leave a port or harbor.

  1. “Now when Paul and his company loosed from Paphos, they came to Perga, in Pamphylia” Acts 13:13

LOOSE, adjective

  1. Unbound; untied; unsewed; not fastened or confined; as the loose sheets of a book.
  2. Not tight or close; as a loose garment.
  3. Not crowded; not close or compact.
  4. Not dense, close or compact; as a cloth or fossil of loose texture.
  5. Not close; not concise; lax; as a loose and diffuse style.
  6. Not precise or exact; vague; indeterminate; as a loose way of reasoning.
  7. Not strict or rigid; as a loose observance of rites.
  8. Unconnected; rambling; as a loose indigested play.
  9. Of lax bowels.
  10. Unengaged; not attached or enslaved.
  11. Disengaged; free from obligation; with from or of.
  12. Wanton; unrestrained in behavior; dissolute; unchaste; as a loose man or woman.
  13. Containing unchaste language; as a loose epistle.

LOOSE, noun

Freedom from restraint; liberty.

    Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language (1828). Verse references are checked against the KJV. Read the full entry.

    Verses are from the King James Version. Word meanings come from the original Greek, not from any one translation.