Free1, a.
a. [compar. FREER; superl. FREEST.] [A-S. fri, frið, freó, freóh, frig, O. Sax., Icel., Sw., Dan., & O. H. Ger. fri, N. H. Ger. frei, M. H. Ger. vri, D. vry, Goth. freis, allied to Skr. prija, beloved, dear, from pri, to love, Goth. frijon, to love.]
Sense 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.
Sense 2. Not under an arbitrary or despotic government; subject only to fixed laws, regularly administered, and defended by them from encroachments upon natural or acquired rights; enjoying political liberty.
Sense 3. Liberated, by arriving at a certain age, from the control of parents, guardian, or master.
Sense 4. Not confined or imprisoned; released from arrest; liberated.
Let an unhappy prisoner free. Prior.
Sense 5. Not subjected to the laws of physical necessity; capable of voluntary activity; endowed with moral liberty; — said of the will.
Sense 6. Clear of offense or crime; guiltless; innocent.
My hands are guilty, but my heart is free. Dryden.
Sense 7. Unconstrained by timidity or distrust; unreserved; ingenuous; frank; familiar.
He was naturally of a serious temper, which was somewhat soured by his sufferings, so that he was free only with a few. Milward.
Sense 8. Unrestrained; immoderate; lavish; licentious; — used in a bad sense.
The critics have been very free in their censures. Felton.
Sense 9. Not close or parsimonious; liberal; open-handed.
Sense 10. Not united or combined with any thing else; separated; dissevered; unattached; at liberty to escape; as, free carbonic acid gas.
Sense 11. Exempt; clear; released; liberated; — followed by from, or, rarely, by of.
Princes declaring themselves free from the obligations of their treaties. Burnet.
Sense 12. 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.
Sense 13. Characteristic of one acting without outward restraint; genteel; charming; easy.
Sense 14. Thrown wholly open, or made entirely accessible; to be enjoyed without limitations; unrestricted; not obstructed, engrossed, or appropriated; open; — said of a thing to be possessed or enjoyed.
Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me as for you? Shak.
Sense 15. Not gained by importunity or purchase; gratuitous; spontaneous; as, free admission to a place.
Sense 16. Not arbitrary or despotic; assuring liberty; defending individual rights against encroachment by any person or class; — said of a government, institutions, &c.
Free agency, the state or the power of choosing or acting freely, or without necessity or constraint upon the will. — Free chapel, 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, that part of the induced electricity in electrical experiments with a jar or battery, which passes through the air to surrounding conductors. Nichol. — Free church, a large party that separated from the church of Scotland in 1843. — Free city, or free town, a city or town independent in its government and franchise, as those of the Hanseatic league, of which only four, Frankfort, Hamburg, Lubeck, and Bremen remain. — Free port. (Com.) (a.) A port where ships of all nations may load and unload free of duty, provided the goods are not carried into the adjoining country. (b.) A port where goods of all kinds are received from ships of all nations at equal rates of duty. — Free States, those States of the Federal Union in which slavery has ceased to exist, or has never existed. — Free wind (Naut.), a fair wind.