fast and loose

adverb

Definition of fast and loose

1 : in a reckless or irresponsible manner played fast and loose with the public purse strings— Paul Stuewe

2 : in a craftily deceitful way manipulated evidence … and played fast and loose with the truth— C. V. Woodward

Examples of fast and loose in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Facebook played fast and loose with our personal data. — Vincent Carroll, The Denver Post, "Carroll: Put down your pitchforks and get real about Big Tech’s trade-offs," 21 June 2019 Many of these countries’ governments play fast and loose with their currencies. — Noam Cohen, WIRED, "Facebook’s Libra Reveals Silicon Valley’s Naked Ambition," 19 June 2019 The soundtrack is also pretty great, with a lot of ‘70s and ‘80s hits played fast and loose. — Cady Drell, Marie Claire, "This Week in Timothée Chalamet, July 27 Edition," 27 July 2018 But the Portal, reportedly delayed from an earlier launch by the Cambridge Analytica data scandal, will pay an extra price for Facebook’s years of playing fast and loose with our privacy. — Geoffrey A. Fowler, The Seattle Times, "Facebook unveils the Portal, a video-chat camera for people who still trust Facebook," 8 Oct. 2018 In the Wild West that is Silicon Valley, tech companies have long played fast and loose with users’ data. — Grace Dobush, Fortune, "EU Regulators Have a New Plan to Keep Google and Facebook in Line: Regulate Them Like Traditional Telecoms," 5 July 2018 The absence of clear rules has led some companies to play fast and loose with securities laws, calculating that the profits will outweigh any potential punishment. — Robert Hackett, Fortune, "The Ledger: The Risk for Crypto Firms of Playing by the Rules," 23 June 2018 Race 3, which like its two predecessors playing fast and loose with back story, tracks the exploits of an extended family of loveable arms dealers. — Lisa Tsering, The Hollywood Reporter, "'Race 3': Film Review," 18 June 2018 But at the very least, diners should know the difference: To identify when a menu is playing fast and loose with the facts; and to appreciate when a restaurant shoulders the time and expense to acquire the real deal. — Dominic Armato, azcentral, "Dishonest menus: Diners, beware of 7 restaurant lies you may be swallowing right now," 13 June 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'fast and loose.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Keep scrolling for more

Learn More about fast and loose

Dictionary Entries near fast and loose

fast and furious

Statistics for fast and loose

Last Updated

7 Jul 2019

Look-up Popularity

Time Traveler for fast and loose

The first known use of fast and loose was in 1580

See more words from the same year

Comments on fast and loose

What made you want to look up fast and loose? Please tell us where you read or heard it (including the quote, if possible).

WORD OF THE DAY

nosegay

a small bunch of flowers

Test Your Vocabulary

Farm Idioms Quiz

What does 'poke' refer to in the expression 'pig in a poke'?

Can you spell these 10 commonly misspelled words?

TAKE THE QUIZ

Word Winder's CrossWinder

Test Your Knowledge - and learn some interesting things along the way.

TAKE THE QUIZ