Free (frē), a.
[Compar. Freer (-ẽr);
superl. Freest (-ĕst).] [OE.
fre, freo, AS. freó, frī;
akin to D. vrij, OS. & OHG. frī, G. frei,
Icel. frī, Sw. & Dan. fri, Goth. freis,
and also to Skr. prija beloved, dear, fr. prī to
love, Goth. frijōn. 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.
That which has the power, or not the power, to
operate, is that alone which is or is not free.
Locke.
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.
3. Liberated, by arriving at a certain age,
from the control of parents, guardian, or master.
4. Not confined or imprisoned; released from
arrest; liberated; at liberty to go.
Set an unhappy prisoner free.
Prior.
5. 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.
6. Clear of offense or crime; guiltless;
innocent.
My hands are guilty, but my heart is
free.
Dryden.
7. Unconstrained by timidity or distrust;
unreserved; ingenuous; frank; familiar; communicative.
He was free only with a few.
Milward.
8. 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.
9. Not close or parsimonious; liberal; open-
handed; lavish; as, free with his money.
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.
Princes declaring themselves free from the
obligations of their treaties.
Bp. Burnet.
11. Characteristic of one acting without
restraint; charming; easy.
12. Ready; eager; acting without spurring or
whipping; spirited; as, a free horse.
13. 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.
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.
Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as
free
For me as for you?
Shak.
15. Not gained by importunity or purchase;
gratuitous; spontaneous; as, free admission; a free
gift.
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.
17. (O. Eng. Law) Certain or
honorable; the opposite of base; as, free service;
free socage. Burrill.
18. (Law) Privileged or individual;
the opposite of common; as, a free fishery; a
free warren. Burrill.
19. Not united or combined with anything
else; separated; dissevered; unattached; at liberty to escape; as,
free carbonic acid gas; free cells.
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.