01 a. Exempt from subjection to the will of others; not under restraint, control, or compulsion; able to follow one's own impulses, desires, or i…
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Exempt from subjection to the will of others; not under restraint, control, or compulsion; able to follow one's own impulses, desires, or inclinations; determining one's own course of action; not dependent; at liberty.“That which has the power, or not the power, to operate, is that alone which is or is not free.” — Locke.
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Not under an arbitrary or despotic government; subject only to fixed laws regularly and fairly administered, and defended by them from encroachments upon natural or acquired rights; enjoying political liberty.
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Liberated, by arriving at a certain age, from the control of parents, guardian, or master.
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Not confined or imprisoned; released from arrest; liberated; at liberty to go.“Set an unhappy prisoner free.” — Prior.
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Not subjected to the laws of physical necessity; capable of voluntary activity; endowed with moral liberty; -- said of the will.“Not free, what proof could they have given sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love.” — Milton.
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6.
Clear of offense or crime; guiltless; innocent.“My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.” — Dryden.
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Unconstrained by timidity or distrust; unreserved; ingenuous; frank; familiar; communicative.“He was free only with a few.” — Milward.
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Unrestrained; immoderate; lavish; licentious; -- used in a bad sense.“The critics have been very free in their censures.” — Felton.“A man may live a free life as to wine or women.” — Shelley.
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Not close or parsimonious; liberal; open-handed; lavish; as, free with his money.
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Exempt; clear; released; liberated; not encumbered or troubled with; as, free from pain; free from a burden; -- followed by from, or, rarely, by of.“Princes declaring themselves free from the obligations of their treaties.” — Bp. Burnet.
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Characteristic of one acting without restraint; charming; easy.
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Ready; eager; acting without spurring or whipping; spirited; as, a free horse.
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Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special rights; -- followed by of.“He therefore makes all birds, of every sect, Free of his farm.” — Dryden.
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Thrown open, or made accessible, to all; to be enjoyed without limitations; unrestricted; not obstructed, engrossed, or appropriated; open; -- said of a thing to be possessed or enjoyed; as, a free school.“Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me as for you?” — Shak.
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Not gained by importunity or purchase; gratuitous; spontaneous; as, free admission; a free gift.
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Not arbitrary or despotic; assuring liberty; defending individual rights against encroachment by any person or class; instituted by a free people; -- said of a government, institutions, etc.
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17.
Certain or honorable; the opposite of base; as, free service; free socage.(O. Eng. Law)
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18.
Privileged or individual; the opposite of common; as, a free fishery; a free warren.(Law)
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Not united or combined with anything else; separated; dissevered; unattached; at liberty to escape; as, free carbonic acid gas; free cells.
Phrases & compounds
Free agency —
the capacity or power of choosing or acting freely, or without necessity or constraint upon the will.
Free bench —
a widow's right in the copyhold lands of her husband, corresponding to dower in freeholds.
Free board —
a vessel's side between water line and gunwale.
Free bond —
an unsaturated or unemployed unit, or bond, of affinity or valence, of an atom or radical.
Free-borough men —
See Friborg.
Free chapel —
a chapel not subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary, having been founded by the king or by a subject specially authorized.
Free charge —
a charge of electricity in the free or statical condition; free electricity.
Free church —
A church whose sittings are for all and without charge.
Free city —
a city or town independent in its government and franchises, as formerly those of the Hanseatic league.
Free cost —
freedom from charges or expenses.
Free and easy —
unconventional; unrestrained; regardless of formalities.
Free goods —
goods admitted into a country free of duty.
Free labor —
the labor of freemen, as distinguished from that of slaves.
Free port —
A port where goods may be received and shipped free of custom duty.
Free public house —
in England, a tavern not belonging to a brewer, so that the landlord is free to brew his own beer or purchase where he chooses.
Free school —
A school to which pupils are admitted without discrimination and on an equal footing.
Free services —
such feudal services as were not unbecoming the character of a soldier or a freemen to perform; as, to serve under his lord in war, to pay a sum of money, etc.
Free ships —
ships of neutral nations, which in time of war are free from capture even though carrying enemy's goods.
Free socage —
a feudal tenure held by certain services which, though honorable, were not military.
Free States —
those of the United States before the Civil War, in which slavery had ceased to exist, or had never existed.
Free stuff —
timber free from knots; clear stuff.
Free thought —
that which is thought independently of the authority of others.
Free trade —
commerce unrestricted by duties or tariff regulations.
Free trader —
one who believes in free trade.
To make free with —
to take liberties with; to help one's self to.
To sail free —
to sail with the yards not braced in as sharp as when sailing closehauled, or close to the wind.