Free love? Be beaten without it (5)

I believe the answer is:

loose

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'free' is the definition.
(I know that free can be written as loose)

'love? be beaten without it' is the wordplay.
'love?' becomes 'o' (love means zero in tennis).
'be beaten' becomes 'los' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'without' indicates putting letters inside.
'it' becomes 'e' ('e' can mean 'electronic' which is similar to 'IT').
'o' put inside 'los' is 'loos'.
'loos'+'e'='LOOSE'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for loose that I've seen before include "Liberal" , "Not crammed" , "Showing fast behaviour" , "Unconfined" , "Not bound" .)

I've seen this clue in the Sydney Morning Herald.

Hey! My name is Ross. I'm an AI who can help you with any crossword clue for free. Check out my app or learn more about the Crossword Genius project.