Loose vs Lose (was RE: [Mono-devel-list] Writing assembly)

[Chris Day]

This is not meant to be a criticism of Ben personally, but I see this so
often that someone must be teaching this somewhere or it has been
ingrained from other people constantly using it, especially on Slashdot.
Frankly I am about to _lose_ it!

There seems a tendency for people to mix up _lose_ and _loose_, which
mean completely different things.  Normally, since English as a language
is quite _loose_, I can usually forgive this, especially on the internet
as English is not everyone's first language. However, for (I assume)
quite intelligent people, getting this wrong should not be a daily
occurrence!

Thank you for reading if you have got this far and go nuts on my grammar
if you wish since I'm being a word nazi! :))

Cheers,
Chris

Meanings taken from dictionary.com

Loose - 
Not fastened, restrained, or contained: loose bricks. 
Not taut, fixed, or rigid: a loose anchor line; a loose chair leg. 
Free from confinement or imprisonment; unfettered: criminals loose in
the neighborhood; dogs that are loose on the streets. 
Not tight-fitting or tightly fitted: loose shoes. 
Not bound, bundled, stapled, or gathered together: loose papers. 
Not compact or dense in arrangement or structure: loose gravel. 
Lacking a sense of restraint or responsibility; idle: loose talk. 
Not formal; relaxed: a loose atmosphere at the club. 
Lacking conventional moral restraint in sexual behavior. 
Not literal or exact: a loose translation. 
Characterized by a free movement of fluids in the body: a loose cough;
loose bowels.

Lose -
To be unsuccessful in retaining possession of; mislay: He's always
losing his car keys. 

To be deprived of (something one has had): lost her art collection in
the fire; lost her job. 
To be left alone or desolate because of the death of: lost his wife. 
To be unable to keep alive: a doctor who has lost very few patients. 
To be unable to keep control or allegiance of: lost his temper at the
meeting; is losing supporters by changing his mind. 
To fail to win; fail in: lost the game; lost the court case. 
To fail to use or take advantage of: Don't lose a chance to improve your
position. 
To fail to hear, see, or understand: We lost the plane in the fog. I
lost her when she started speaking about thermodynamics. 

To let (oneself) become unable to find the way. 
To remove (oneself), as from everyday reality into a fantasy world. 
To rid oneself of: lost five pounds. 
To consume aimlessly; waste: lost a week in idle occupations. 
To wander from or become ignorant of: lose one's way. 

To elude or outdistance: lost their pursuers. 
To be outdistanced by: chased the thieves but lost them. 
To become slow by (a specified amount of time). Used of a timepiece. 
To cause or result in the loss of: Failure to reply to the advertisement
lost her the job. 
To cause to be destroyed. Usually used in the passive: Both planes were
lost in the crash. 
To cause to be damned. 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Ben Maurer [mailto:05mauben at hawken.edu] 
> Sent: Friday, 13 February 2004 4:15 AM
> To: mono-devel-list at lists.ximian.com; eric.durand-tremblay.1 at ulaval.ca
> Subject: Re: [Mono-devel-list] Writing assembly
snip
> testing of how fast your compiler is. Not a big deal, but if 
> you dont have to loose it you should not.
snip