on the loose

English

Pronunciation

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

Prepositional phrase

on the loose

1. (idiomatic) Not incarcerated or in captivity; not under control.
   • 2022 April 19, Skeeter, “Biden Admin To Fund Crack Pipe Distribution To Advance ?Racial Equity?”, in rec.sport.pro-wrestling‎^[1] (Usenet):

     Went to a bongo party completely by mistake / there were coons and thugs and fat sheboons with all the pavement apes / When I got to the bongo party, it smelled of jenkem juice / someone left the cave door open, there were chimps on the loose.

2. (slang, archaic) Out on a spree, or in search of adventure.
3. (slang, archaic) Earning a living by prostitution.
   • 1868, The Indian Medical Gazette, volume 3, page 21:

     Many doctors practising in large cities dwell on the difficulty of checking clandestine prostitution, which is unfortunately on the increase in all crowded centres, where numbers of women are on the loose, over whom the police have little or no hold.

Synonyms

• on the run
• on the lam

Translations

not in captivity

• Finnish: karkuteillä (fi), vapaalla jalalla (fi), irrallaan (fi) (not in captivity); valloillaan (not under control)
• German: sich frei bewegend, frei herumlaufend, frei umherziehend
• Greek: εκτός ελέγχου (ektós elénchou)
• Hungarian: szabadlábon (hu), szökésben, szabadon (hu)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: på frifot

  Nynorsk: på frifot

• Polish: na wolności
• Portuguese: à solta (pt)
• Russian: на во́ле (na vóle), ^{(please verify)} на свобо́де (na svobóde)
• Scottish Gaelic: mu sgaoil
• Spanish: suelto (es) m, libre (es) m or f, liberado (es) m
• Swedish: på fri fot (sv), lös (sv)
• Turkish: firari (tr)

References

• (earning a living by prostitution): John Camden Hotten (1873) The Slang Dictionary