fast and loose

adverb

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

There has been a fast and loose connection with the not-so-magnificent seven coaches who have tended to come and go on the Raducanu carousel. —Tim Ellis, Forbes.com, 27 Mar. 2025

Google is building higher fences around its Play Store, as the fast and loose world of sideloading comes under increasing pressure. —Zak Doffman, Forbes, 12 Mar. 2025

The fast and loose philosophy was not going to hold water against a thoroughly professional South African unit. —Tim Ellis, Forbes, 1 Mar. 2025

The rating never came though — Prey played too fast and loose with comics canon to court fans still starved for authentic adaptations, yet leaned on comics references hard enough to possibly alienate newcomers. —Joshua Rivera, Vulture, 13 Nov. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1557, in the meaning defined at sense 1

Rhymes for fast and loose

• disabuse
• introduce
• reproduce
• abstruse
• abuse
• adduce
• atreus
• caboose
• cayuse
• conduce
• deduce
• diffuse