free
from
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
free
adv 1: without restraint; "cows in India are running loose"
[syn: {loose}, {free}]
adj 1: able to act at will; not hampered; not under compulsion
or restraint; "free enterprise"; "a free port"; "a free
country"; "I have an hour free"; "free will"; "free of
racism"; "feel free to stay as long as you wish"; "a free
choice" [ant: {unfree}]
2: unconstrained or not chemically bound in a molecule or not
fixed and capable of relatively unrestricted motion; "free
expansion"; "free oxygen"; "a free electron" [ant: {bound}]
3: costing nothing; "complimentary tickets"; "free admission"
[syn: {complimentary}, {costless}, {free}, {gratis(p)},
{gratuitous}]
4: not occupied or in use; "a free locker"; "a free lane"
5: not fixed in position; "the detached shutter fell on him";
"he pulled his arm free and ran" [syn: {detached}, {free}]
6: not held in servitude; "after the Civil War he was a free
man" [ant: {unfree}]
7: not taken up by scheduled activities; "a free hour between
classes"; "spare time on my hands" [syn: {spare}, {free}]
8: completely wanting or lacking; "writing barren of insight";
"young recruits destitute of experience"; "innocent of
literary merit"; "the sentence was devoid of meaning" [syn:
{barren}, {destitute}, {devoid}, {free}, {innocent}]
9: not literal; "a loose interpretation of what she had been
told"; "a free translation of the poem" [syn: {free},
{loose}, {liberal}]
n 1: people who are free; "the home of the free and the brave"
[syn: {free}, {free people}]
v 1: grant freedom to; free from confinement [syn: {free},
{liberate}, {release}, {unloose}, {unloosen}, {loose}]
[ant: {confine}, {detain}]
2: relieve from; "Rid the house of pests" [syn: {rid}, {free},
{disembarrass}]
3: remove or force out from a position; "The dentist dislodged
the piece of food that had been stuck under my gums"; "He
finally could free the legs of the earthquake victim who was
buried in the rubble" [syn: {dislodge}, {free}] [ant:
{deposit}, {lodge}, {stick}, {wedge}]
4: grant relief or an exemption from a rule or requirement to;
"She exempted me from the exam" [syn: {exempt}, {relieve},
{free}] [ant: {apply}, {enforce}, {implement}]
5: make (information) available for publication; "release the
list with the names of the prisoners" [syn: {free},
{release}]
6: free from obligations or duties [syn: {free}, {discharge}]
7: free or remove obstruction from; "free a path across the
cluttered floor" [syn: {free}, {disengage}] [ant: {block},
{close up}, {impede}, {jam}, {obstruct}, {obturate},
{occlude}]
8: let off the hook; "I absolve you from this responsibility"
[syn: {absolve}, {justify}, {free}] [ant: {blame}, {fault}]
9: part with a possession or right; "I am relinquishing my
bedroom to the long-term house guest"; "resign a claim to the
throne" [syn: {release}, {relinquish}, {resign}, {free},
{give up}]
10: release (gas or energy) as a result of a chemical reaction
or physical decomposition [syn: {release}, {free},
{liberate}]
11: make (assets) available; "release the holdings in the
dictator's bank account" [syn: {unblock}, {unfreeze},
{free}, {release}] [ant: {block}, {freeze}, {immobilise},
{immobilize}]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Free \Free\ (fr[=e]), a. [Compar. {Freer} (-[~e]r); superl.
{Freest} (-[e^]st).] [OE. fre, freo, AS. fre['o], fr[imac];
akin to D. vrij, OS. & OHG. fr[imac], G. frei, Icel.
fr[imac], Sw. & Dan. fri, Goth. freis, and also to Skr. prija
beloved, dear, fr. pr[imac] to love, Goth. frij[=o]n. Cf.
{Affray}, {Belfry}, {Friday}, {Friend}, {Frith} inclosure.]
1. 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.
[1913 Webster]
That which has the power, or not the power, to
operate, is that alone which is or is not free.
--Locke.
[1913 Webster]
2. 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.
[1913 Webster]
3. Liberated, by arriving at a certain age, from the control
of parents, guardian, or master.
[1913 Webster]
4. Not confined or imprisoned; released from arrest;
liberated; at liberty to go.
[1913 Webster]
Set an unhappy prisoner free. --Prior.
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5. Not subjected to the laws of physical necessity; capable
of voluntary activity; endowed with moral liberty; -- said
of the will.
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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.
[1913 Webster]
My hands are guilty, but my heart is free. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
7. Unconstrained by timidity or distrust; unreserved;
ingenuous; frank; familiar; communicative.
[1913 Webster]
He was free only with a few. --Milward.
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8. Unrestrained; immoderate; lavish; licentious; -- used in a
bad sense.
[1913 Webster]
The critics have been very free in their censures.
--Felton.
[1913 Webster]
A man may live a free life as to wine or women.
--Shelley.
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9. Not close or parsimonious; liberal; open-handed; lavish;
as, free with his money.
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10. Exempt; clear; released; liberated; not encumbered or
troubled with; as, free from pain; free from a burden; --
followed by from, or, rarely, by of.
[1913 Webster]
Princes declaring themselves free from the
obligations of their treaties. --Bp. Burnet.
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11. Characteristic of one acting without restraint; charming;
easy.
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12. Ready; eager; acting without spurring or whipping;
spirited; as, a free horse.
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13. Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying
certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special
rights; -- followed by of.
[1913 Webster]
He therefore makes all birds, of every sect,
Free of his farm. --Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
14. 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.
[1913 Webster]
Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free
For me as for you? --Shak.
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15. Not gained by importunity or purchase; gratuitous;
spontaneous; as, free admission; a free gift.
[1913 Webster]
16. 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.
[1913 Webster]
17. (O. Eng. Law) Certain or honorable; the opposite of
{base}; as, free service; free socage. --Burrill.
[1913 Webster]
18. (Law) Privileged or individual; the opposite of common;
as, a free fishery; a free warren. --Burrill.
[1913 Webster]
19. Not united or combined with anything else; separated;
dissevered; unattached; at liberty to escape; as, free
carbonic acid gas; free cells.
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{Free agency}, the capacity or power of choosing or acting
freely, or without necessity or constraint upon the will.
{Free bench} (Eng. Law), a widow's right in the copyhold
lands of her husband, corresponding to dower in freeholds.
{Free board} (Naut.), a vessel's side between water line and
gunwale.
{Free bond} (Chem.), an unsaturated or unemployed unit, or
bond, of affinity or valence, of an atom or radical.
{Free-borough men} (O.Eng. Law). See {Friborg}.
{Free chapel} (Eccles.), a chapel not subject to the
jurisdiction of the ordinary, having been founded by the
king or by a subject specially authorized. [Eng.]
--Bouvier.
{Free charge} (Elec.), a charge of electricity in the free or
statical condition; free electricity.
{Free church}.
(a) A church whose sittings are for all and without
charge.
(b) An ecclesiastical body that left the Church of
Scotland, in 1843, to be free from control by the
government in spiritual matters.
{Free city}, or {Free town}, a city or town independent in
its government and franchises, as formerly those of the
Hanseatic league.
{Free cost}, freedom from charges or expenses. --South.
{Free and easy}, unconventional; unrestrained; regardless of
formalities. [Colloq.] "Sal and her free and easy ways."
--W. Black.
{Free goods}, goods admitted into a country free of duty.
{Free labor}, the labor of freemen, as distinguished from
that of slaves.
{Free port}. (Com.)
(a) A port where goods may be received and shipped free
of custom duty.
(b) A port where goods of all kinds are received from
ships of all nations at equal rates of 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. --Simmonds.
{Free school}.
(a) A school to which pupils are admitted without
discrimination and on an equal footing.
(b) A school supported by general taxation, by
endowmants, etc., where pupils pay nothing for
tuition; a public school.
{Free services} (O.Eng. Law), 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. --Burrill.
{Free ships}, ships of neutral nations, which in time of war
are free from capture even though carrying enemy's goods.
{Free socage} (O.Eng. Law), a feudal tenure held by certain
services which, though honorable, were not military.
--Abbott.
{Free States}, those of the United States before the Civil
War, in which slavery had ceased to exist, or had never
existed.
{Free stuff} (Carp.), 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. [Colloq.]
{To sail free} (Naut.), to sail with the yards not braced in
as sharp as when sailing closehauled, or close to the
wind.
[1913 Webster]
from
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Free \Free\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Freed}; p. pr. & vb. n.
{Freeing}.] [OE. freen, freoien, AS. fre['o]gan. See {Free},
a.]
1. To make free; to set at liberty; to rid of that which
confines, limits, embarrasses, oppresses, etc.; to
release; to disengage; to clear; -- followed by from, and
sometimes by off; as, to free a captive or a slave; to be
freed of these inconveniences. --Clarendon.
[1913 Webster]
Our land is from the rage of tigers freed. --Dryden.
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Arise, . . . free thy people from their yoke.
--Milton.
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2. To remove, as something that confines or bars; to relieve
from the constraint of.
[1913 Webster]
This master key
Frees every lock, and leads us to his person.
--Dryden.
[1913 Webster]
3. To frank. [Obs.] --Johnson.
[1913 Webster]
from
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
FREE. Not bound to servitude; at liberty to act as one pleases. This word is
put in opposition to slave.
2. Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the
several states, which may be included within this Union, according to their
respective numbers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number
of free persons, including those bound to service for a term of years, and
excluding Indians not taxed, three-fifths of all other persons. Const. U. S.
art. 1, s. 2. 3. It is also put in contradistinction to being bound as an
apprentice; as, an apprentice becomes free on attaining the age of twenty-
one years.
4. The Declaration of Independence asserts that all men are born free,
and in at sense, the term includes all mankind.
from
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
470 Moby Thesaurus words for "free":
abandoned, able, above, absolve, accessible, acquit, adrift,
affranchise, afloat, afoot and lighthearted, allowed, amnesty,
approachable, arbitrary, artless, as a gift, as our guest,
at large, at leisure, at liberty, at loose ends, at will,
autarchic, autarkic, autonomous, available, bald, bare, bighearted,
bluff, blunt, bounteous, bountiful, break loose, break out, broad,
brusque, candid, cast off, casual, charitable, cleanse,
cleanse away, clear, clear of, cleared, communicative,
complimentary, conversable, costless, cut loose, debauched,
decontaminate, deliver, delivered, democratic, demonstrative,
deobstruct, deserted, destigmatize, detach, detached, diffuse,
direct, disburden, discharge, disclose, disclosed, discretional,
discretionary, disembarrass, disembroil, disencumber, disengage,
disengaged, disentangle, disenthrall, disinvolve, disjoin,
dislodge, dismiss, dispense from, dispense with, disperse,
dissipated, dissolute, doff, downright, ease, ease off, easy,
easygoing, effusive, elective, eleemosynary, emancipate,
emancipated, empty, enfranchise, enfranchised, escaped, except,
exculpate, excuse, exempt, exempt from, exonerate, expansive,
expenseless, explicit, expose, exposed, extra, extract, extricate,
extricated, extroverted, fallow, fast, fled, floating, flown,
footloose, footloose and fancy-free, for free, for love,
for nothing, for the asking, forgive, forsaken, forthright, frank,
frankhearted, free and easy, free as air, free for nothing,
free from, free gratis, free of, free of charge, free of cost,
free up, free will, free-born, free-speaking, free-spoken,
free-tongued, freebie, freeborn, freed, freehanded, freehearted,
freely, fugitive, furlough, gallant, gay, generous, genuine,
get out, giftlike, give absolution, give dispensation from,
give release, give respite, given, giving, gossipy, gracious,
grant amnesty to, grant immunity, grant remission, gratis,
gratuitous, gratuitously, greathearted, handsome, heart-to-heart,
honest, hospitable, idle, in the clear, independent,
individualistic, informal, ingenuous, intermit, jobless, justify,
large, largehearted, lavish, leisure, leisured, let go, let loose,
let off, let out, let up, liberal, liberate, liberated, licentious,
loose, loosely, loosen, lumpen, magnanimous, manifest, manumit,
munificent, naked, natural, newsy, nonmandatory, nonpros, off,
off duty, off work, offered, on one, on parole, on the house,
on the loose, open, open-handed, openhanded, openhearted, openly,
optional, out, out of, out of employ, out of harness, out of work,
outgoing, outright, outspoken, pardon, parole, patefy, permitted,
plain, plain-spoken, princely, proffered, profligate, profuse,
purge, purge away, quash the charge, quit, quit of, rakehell,
rakehellish, rakehelly, rakish, ransom, recover, redeem, redeemed,
relax, relaxed, release, released, relieve, remise, remit, remove,
reprieve, rescue, rescued, retired, retrieve, reveal, rickety, rid,
rid of, round, runaway, salvage, save, save the necessity, scatter,
scot-free, self-acting, self-active, self-determined,
self-determining, self-directing, self-governed, self-governing,
self-revealing, self-revelatory, semiretired, separate,
set at large, set at liberty, set free, shaky, shed of, shrive,
shut of, sincere, slack, slack off, slacken, sociable, sovereign,
spare, spontaneous, spring, sprung, stintless, straight,
straight-out, straightforward, suspend, take off, talkative,
tear loose, tenantless, to his heirs, transparent, unanchored,
unasked, unattached, unbar, unbesought, unbidden, unbind, unblock,
unbolt, unbought, unbound, unbridled, unbuckle, unburden, unbutton,
uncage, uncalled-for, uncase, unceremonious, unchain, unchained,
unchecked, unclasp, unclench, unclog, unclogged, unclosed,
unclutch, unclutter, uncoerced, uncommitted, uncompelled,
unconditional, unconditioned, unconfined, unconstrained,
uncontrolled, uncork, uncover, uncovered, uncurtain, undo, undone,
undrape, unemployable, unemployed, unencumbered, unengaged,
unenslaved, unequivocal, unfasten, unfastened, unfetter,
unfettered, unfilled, unfixed, unfold, unforced, unfoul, unglue,
ungrudging, unguarded, unhampered, unhidden, unhindered, unimpeded,
uninfluenced, uninhabited, uninhibited, uninvited, uninvolved,
unknot, unlace, unlatch, unleash, unlock, unloose, unloosen,
unmanned, unobstructed, unoccupied, unpaid-for, unpeopled, unplug,
unpopulated, unpressured, unprompted, unravel, unrepressed,
unrequested, unrequired, unreserved, unreservedly, unrestrained,
unrestricted, unreticent, unroll, unscramble, unseal, unsecretive,
unselfish, unshackle, unshackled, unsheathe, unshrinking, unshut,
unsilent, unsnarl, unsolicited, unsought, unsparing, unstaffed,
unstick, unstinted, unstinting, unstop, unstopped, unstrap,
unstuck, unsuppressed, untaken, untangle, untaxed, untenanted,
untended, untie, untied, unused, unveil, unwrap, vacant, vindicate,
voluntary, volunteer, weigh anchor, well out of, whitewash,
wide-open, wild, willful, with abandon, withdraw the charge,
without, without charge, without restraint, without stint
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