How to Use fast and loose in a Sentence

fast and loose

adverb
Definition of fast and loosenext
  • Musk is a taskmaster who plays fast and loose with the rules.
    — Anne Sraders, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2022
  • But AstraZeneca cannot play fast and loose with the world’s trust.
    — Amy Davidson Sorkin, The New Yorker, 23 Mar. 2021
  • As a form, the personal essay plays fast and loose with the truth.
    — Rumaan Alam, The New Republic, 18 Oct. 2019
  • Are the lawyers acting like this because the White House as a whole plays it so fast and loose?
    — Aaron Blake, Washington Post, 18 Sep. 2017
  • This was a guy who changed his name multiple times and played fast and loose with the truth.
    — Adam Rathe, Town & Country, 9 Feb. 2021
  • There's a fast and loose energy to the universe at this time.
    — Chicago Tribune, 6 Dec. 2022
  • If Vote Leave is found to have breached the rules, that will support the notion that Leavers played fast and loose in 2016.
    — The Economist, 27 Mar. 2018
  • The soundtrack is also pretty great, with a lot of ‘70s and ‘80s hits played fast and loose.
    — Cady Drell, Marie Claire, 27 July 2018
  • And which ones are playing fast and loose with your data?
    — Patrick Lucas Austin, Time, 26 July 2019
  • Ethridge has always played fast and loose with the idea of the picture as document.
    — Vince Aletti, The New Yorker, 11 Nov. 2022
  • In the first meeting of the season with Eastlake, Otay Ranch High blew a six-run lead, playing fast and loose in the field.
    — John Maffei, San Diego Union-Tribune, 28 Apr. 2022
  • Trump, for his part, says Schiff has been playing fast and loose with the nation’s secrets.
    — Massimo Calabresi, Time, 8 Mar. 2018
  • The brave thing my grandfather did was to play it fast and loose with the IRS as an accountant.
    — Emily Meg Weinstein, Longreads, 19 Dec. 2017
  • Team Herodotus is made up of bold synthesizers, and can sometimes play fast and loose with the sources.
    — Dominic Green, WSJ, 20 May 2022
  • Carmakers play it fast and loose with body style terms nowadays.
    — Bob Weber, chicagotribune.com, 26 Aug. 2017
  • While the Clintons could play fast and loose with the precise truth, so many scandals of the 1990s were concocted out of a few pieces of paper and a gust of wind.
    — Walter Shapiro, The New Republic, 27 June 2022
  • Not everyone played fast and loose with the American theme.
    — Eliza Huber, refinery29.com, 15 Sep. 2021
  • Objects plays fast and loose with actual psychology and sense, but is a hell of a lot of fun along the way.
    — Ariana Romero, refinery29.com, 2 July 2019
  • Charlie is a rather strange 13-year-old who cuts off pigeon's heads and plays fast and loose with her nut allergy.
    — refinery29.com, 12 June 2018
  • Today is not about the words or social media posts of a man who infamously plays fast and loose with the facts.
    — Laura Jedeed, The New Republic, 4 Apr. 2023
  • Lawyers and accountants who look the other way when corporate clients play fast and loose, who even collude with them to skirt the law.
    — Robert Reich, Newsweek, 7 Mar. 2018
  • In the Wild West that is Silicon Valley, tech companies have long played fast and loose with users’ data.
    — Grace Dobush, Fortune, 5 July 2018
  • Half of my fellow shoppers wore masks of one kind or another and most of us kept a safe distance, but a few folks were playing fast and loose with the rules.
    — Beth Spotswood, SFChronicle.com, 8 Apr. 2020
  • In 1973 President Nixon imperiled that system by playing fast and loose with the tax laws.
    — Joseph Thorndike, Forbes, 3 June 2021
  • These creations play fast and loose with the traditional varieties—but that doesn’t make the results less tasty.
    — Rodelio Aglibot, Bon Appetit, 30 Jan. 2017
  • Some of them complained that Mr. Perrotta was playing fast and loose with the rules, but that he could not be challenged because he was thought to have Mr. Pruitt’s blessing.
    — Kenneth P. Vogel, Eric Lipton and Lisa Friedman, New York Times, 12 Apr. 2018
  • Many of these countries’ governments play fast and loose with their currencies.
    — Noam Cohen, WIRED, 19 June 2019
  • The trio behind Player 2 have the utmost respect for the rules governing the game and would never play as fast and loose in a tournament setting.
    — Mike Dojc, Forbes, 27 May 2022
  • Arguments were made during the segment that played fast and loose with the facts; the claim, for example, that 38 million people live in poverty.
    — Ed Conard, National Review, 16 Sep. 2020
  • Sean had already been worked on a bit before the merge, since the first season was a bit fast and loose with contestant interaction at the challenges.
    — Dalton Ross, EW.com, 19 Aug. 2020

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'fast and loose.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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