Lĭb'er-al1, a.
a. [Fr. libéral, Pr., Sp., & Pg. liberal, It. liberale, Lat. liberalis, from liber, free.]
Sense 1. Free by birth; gentle in manners; refined.
Sense 2. Befitting a freeman or gentleman; as, liberal arts or studies; liberal education, that is, such as is extended beyond the practical necessities of life.
To this privileged body has been committed the supreme direction of liberal education. Macaulay.
Sense 3. Bestowing with a free hand; generous; bounteous; open-hearted; — said of a giver.
Sense 4. Not narrow or contracted in mind; enlarged in spirit; catholic.
Sense 5. Bestowed with a free hand; bountiful; ample; — said of a gift; hence, also, profuse; as, a liberal discharge of matter or of water; not confined or restricted; as, a liberal translation of a classic, or a liberal construction of law or of language.
His wealth doth warrant a liberal dower. Shak.
Sense 6. Regardless of law or moral restraint; licentious. Shak.
Sense 7. Not bound by orthodox or established tenets in political or religious philosophy; independent in opinion; not conservative; friendly to great freedom in the forms of administration of government; evincing, or caused by, such a spirit; as, liberal thinkers; liberal Christians; the liberal party; liberal conduct.
I confess I see nothing liberal in this “order of thoughts,” as Hobbes elsewhere expresses it. Hazlitt.
☞ Liberal arts, as distinguished from mechanical arts, are such as depend more on the exertion of the mind than on the labor of the hands, and regard amusement, curiosity, or intellectual improvement, rather than the necessity of subsistence, or manual skill. Such are grammar, rhetoric, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and the like. — Liberal has of before the thing bestowed, and to before the person or object on which any thing is bestowed; as, to be liberal of praise or censure; liberal to the poor.
Synonyms— Generous; bountiful; munificent; beneficent; ample; large; profuse; free. — LIBERAL, GENEROUS. Liberal is free-born, and generous is high-born. The former is opposed to the ordinary feelings of a servile state, and implies largeness of spirit in giving, judging, acting, &c. The latter expresses that nobleness of soul which is peculiarly appropriate to those of high rank — a spirit that goes out of self, and finds its enjoyment in consulting the feelings and happiness of others. Generosity is measured by the extent of the sacrifices it makes; liberality, by the warmth of feeling which it manifests.
The liberal are secure alone, For what we frankly give forever is our own. Granville.
A generous virtue, of a vigorous kind, Pure in the last recesses of the mind. Dryden.