free 
Fond Man ! art thon only/ to ruino and destroy thy 
self? N',v/,,,.,;(,.,'f, Sermons, I. ii. 
To a will free in the sense of umuotived we can attach 
no meaning whatever. 
7'. //. Green, Prolegomena to Ethics, 97. 
2. Unrestrained in movement ; not constrain- 
ed, as by fastenings, to remain in a certain 
position or to move in a certain direction: as, 
to get one's arm free ; the free motion of a par- 
ticle in space. See def. 17. 3. Specifically, 
not subject to arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic 
governmental control, but existiuguuder a gov- 
ernment and laws based on the consent, ex- 
pressed or implied, of the majority of the gov- 
erned; having civil liberty: as, a free state or 
people ; &free church. 
We must be/ree or die, who speak the tongue 
That Shakspere spake, the faith and morals hold 
Which Milton held. Wordsworth, Sonnets, xvi. 
For a thousand years after Christ the Church of Ireland 
was free. Bp. Chr. Wordsworth, Church of Ireland, p. 114. 
By definition, a nation calling itself free should have no 
jealousy of the executive, for freedom means that the na- 
tion, the political part of the nation, wields the executive. 
Bagehot, Bug. Const., p. 346. 
A free press might have been a great gain under the 
despotism of the Roman Empire ; it could not have made 
political life under the Athenian democracy freer or more 
open than it was. E. A. Freeman, Amer. Lects., p. 250. 
4. Based on the principles of civil liberty ; not 
arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic : as, a/fee con- 
stitution or government. 
There can be no free government without a democrat- 
ical branch in the constitution. J. Adams. 
5. Characterized by liberty of action or ex- 
pression; unreserved, open, frank, ingenuous, 
etc.: often with the implication of undue lib- 
erty. 
He was very free to talk with me, and first asked me 
my business thither. Dampier, Voyages, II. i. 94. 
Great wits love to be free with the highest objects. 
Swift, Against Abolishing Christianity. 
The critics have been very free in their censures. 
Felton. 
He sees with pride her richer thought, 
Her fancy's freer ranges. 
Whittier, Among the Hills. 
6. Loose; at liberty; wild: often used in old 
English poetry, mainly for alliteration, without 
special significance. 
The culorum of this clause curatores ys to mene, 
That ben carpenters vnder Criste holy kirke to make 
For lewede folke, godes foules and hus free bestes. 
Piers Plowman (C), xii. 249. 
' He's parted her and her sweet life, 
For pu'in the rose and the fair lilie, 
For pu'in them sae fair and/re. 
nuke of Perth's Three Daughters (Child's Ballads, 
[II. 282). 
And weel he kent that ladye fair 
Amang her maidens free. 
The Gay Goss-Hawk (Child's Ballads, III. 279). 
7. Unrestrained by decency ; bold ; indecent. 
Tho'/ree as Thais, still affect a Fright. 
Congreve, tr. of Ovid's Art of Love. 
Earl Limours 
Drank till he jested with all ease, and told 
Free tales. Tennyson, Oeraint. 
Many of these poems are full of a solemn and deep de- 
votion ; others are strangely coarse and free. 
Ticknor, Span. Lit., II. 178. 
8. Clear of obstruction or impediment; not 
hindered or restricted; unobstructed: its, free 
motion ; the water has a free passage or chan- 
nel ; a free field of action. 
Pray for us, that the word of the Lord may have free 
course, and be glorified. 2 Thes. iii. 1. 
Free vent of words love's fire doth assuage. 
Shak., Venus and Adonis, 1. 334. 
They bore her . . . free-faced to the free airs of heaven, 
And laid her in the vault of her own kin. 
Tennyson, Lover's Tale, iv. 
In the treatment of typhus and typhoid fevers, the freest 
ventilation, even to the extent of placing the patient in the 
open air, reduces the mortality more than half, and greatly 
shortens the time of recovery. 
Huxley and Youmans, Physiol., 393. 
9. Clear or exempt (from something) ; having 
immunity: with from, or sometimes of: as, 
free from disease, or from faults; a grove free 
from underbrush. 
These, my lord, 
Are such allow'd infirmities, that honesty 
Is never free of. Shale., W. T., i. 2. 
The Countries that are freest from Excess of drinking 
are Spain and Italy. Howell, Letters, ii. 54. 
Here, free yourselves from envy, care, and strife, 
You view the various turns of human life. 
Dryden, Prol. to the Univ. of Oxford, 1674, 1. 7. 
The side corridors are generally free from figure-sculp- 
ture. J. Ferrjmson, Hist. Indian Arch., p. 358. 
10. Open for use or enjoyment; generally ac- 
cessible or available ; not appropriated ; unre- 
2367 
stricted: as, air and water aro/ree; the ocean 
is a free highway for all nations ; a free li- 
brary. 
Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as/rce 
For me as for you? Shak., T. of the S., i. 2. 
Where wert thou when thy father play'd 
In his free field, and pastime made, 
A merry boy in sun and shade? 
Tennyson, Two Voices. 
11. Specifically, not encumbered with taxes 
or customs-duties. 
We are living under a system in which our imports 
alone sue free, our exports for some of the principal mar- 
kets not being free. 
Quoted in Nineteenth Century, XIX. 384. 
12. Gratuitous; without compensation or re- 
ward ; clear of equivalent or reciprocation : as, 
free schools or education ; a free table ; a free 
gift or service. 
" I take it as free gift, then," said the boy, 
" Not guerdon." Tennyson, Geraint. 
13. Liberal; not parsimonious or sparing ; giv- 
ing or using, or disposed to give or use, gener- 
ously or abundantly: as, he is very free with 
his money ; a free patron of art. 
As many as were of A free heart burnt offerings. 
2 Chron. xxix. 31. 
It is a very pretty place, the house commodious, the 
gardens handsome, and our entertainment very free. 
Evelyn, Diary, June 2, 1676. 
1 4. Invested with the rights or immunities (of) ; 
having a right to the freedom, enjoyment, or 
use (of) : with of: as, a man free of the city of 
London. 
I was/rec of haunts umbrageous. Keats. 
15. Ready; eager; not dull; acting without 
compulsion. 
Raungiug the forest wide on courser free. 
Spenser, F. Q., I. ix. 12. 
Courageously, and with a. free desire, 
Attending but the signal to begin. 
Shak., Kich. II., i. 3. 
A spur to SL free horse will make him run himself blind. 
Burton, Anat. of Mel., p. 386. 
16. Not holding strictly to rule or form or to 
an original : as, a, free drawing ; a free transla- 
tion ; a free fugue. 
There is a winning freshness in the originals . . . that 
escapes in translation, however free or however strict. 
Ticknor, Span. Lit., I. 139. 
17. Not attached or fixed; moving freely, or 
able to do so; detached from some support: 
as, the free larval form of an animal afterward 
becoming fixed. 
Within the arch is a framework or centering of wood 
standing/ree. J. Ferguston, Hist. In. li:m Arch., p. 119. 
Specifically (a) In chem., not chemically combined with 
any other body ; at liberty to escape : as, free carbonic- 
acid gas. 
The anaerobia those [plants] . . . which thrive best in 
the absence of free oxygen, and to which, in certain cases, 
the access of free oxygen is fatal. Encyc. Brit., XIX. 51. 
(b) In bot., not admit c to other organs: as, & free ovary 
(that is, one not united with the calyx) ; a free placenta 
(one detached from the walls of the ovary). It is some- 
times used in the sense of distinct, or not adnate to adja- 
cent organs of the same kind, (c) In entom., unrestrained 
in articulate movement ; movable at the point of con- 
tact. 
The head is formed nearly as in Psephanus, but it is 
less free, owing to the prominent angles of the thorax. 
Waterhouse. 
(d) Said of those parts of a limb which are beyond the 
common integument of the body. 
18t. Noble. 
Whan william that wiste, wigtli vp he stirte, 
As glad as any gome that euer god wrougt, 
That he migt his fllle fist for that fre quene. 
William ofPalei-ne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 3277. 
Almyghty god, my Fadir/ive, 
In erthe thi bidding haue I done, 
And clarified the name of the, 
To thy selffe clarifle the sone. 
York Plays, p. 467. 
Brethren of the Free Spirit. See brother. Free 
agency, the power of acting without constraint of the 
will. See mil. 
Only through that [the queen's] mind, only by inform- 
ing that supreme free-agency, could his [the prince con- 
sort's] influence legitimately act. 
Gladstone, Gleanings, I. 74. 
Free agent. See voluntary agent, under agent. Free 
and easy, unconstrained ; unconventional. 
Also in another Historical Tableau, on the side of the 
same Room, he [Rubens] has Painted his own Picture, in 
a very free and easie Posture. 
Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 41. 
Free Baptists. See Freewill Baptuts, under Baptist. 
Free bench. See free-bench. Free burgh. See burgh. 
Free Cause. See cause, 1. Free cell, in cnjptoyamic 
bot., a single cell that is not attached to any other cell 
nor to any object. Free-cell formation, in histology, 
the formation of several cells (rarely of one cell) from and 
free 
in the protoplasm of the mother-cell. It is recognized 
as one of four types of cytot;< nn-is or cell-formation, the 
others being rejuvenescence, conjugation, and division. 
Free-cell formation may be typically observed in the 
formation of the ascospores of the Ascomycetes. 
Encyc. lirit., XII. 13. 
Free chant, chapel, charge, etc. See the nouns. 
Free Charge Of electricity, electricity on an insulated 
conductor not in the immediate vicinity of a correspond- 
ing or complementary charge of the opposite sign x. 
Free Church, more fully Free Church of Scotland, a 
large and important body of Presbyterians, organized at 
Edinburgh, Scotland, at the disruption in 1843, when over 
200 ministers, members of the General Assembly of the 
Established Church of Scotland, after the reading of a 
protest, formally withdrew with a large following of ad- 
herents to another meeting-place, and constituted the 
first general assembly of a church that should be free 
from state connection, the interference of the civil courts 
in spiritual matters, and the evils of patronage, while still 
maintaining the Confession of Faith and the standards 
of the Church of Scotland. The Act of Separation and 
Deed of Demission by which the new organization cut 
loose from the Established Church was signed by 474 min- 
isters and professors, who renounced all claim to the bene- 
fices they held. The Free Church ranks as second to the 
Established Church in the number of its congregations and 
membership. Abbreviated F. C. See disruption. 
In one sense the Free Church dates its existence from 
the Disruption of 1843, in another it claims to be the right- 
ful representative of the National Church of Scotland as 
it was reformed in 1560. Encyc. Brit., IX. 742. 
Free church, a church in which the pews or sittings are 
not rented, but are open to all. Free City. See city. 
Free companion. Same AS free-lance, 1. 
I trust there is no dishonour in wishing I had here some 
two scores of my gallant troop of Free Companions > Oh, 
my brave lances ! if ye knew how hard your captain were 
this day bested, how soon would I see my banner at the 
head of your clump of spears ! Scott, Ivanhoe, xxx. 
Free Congregations. See congregation. 'Free coup. 
See coupi. Free Democratic party, in U. S. jmlitict,* 
name assumed by the Free-soilers in 1852. Free drain- 
age, the capability, in consequence of position, of being 
drained by an adit-level. A mine which can be thus 
drained is said, although rarely, to have free drainage. 
In Warwickshire, England, to have free drainage is called 
being "level-free." Free electricity. See electricity 
and induction. Free fantasia. See fantasia. Free 
fisher, or free fisherman, in England, one who holds 
the right to take fish in certain waters. Free fishery. 
See fishery. Free gills. See yilli. Free labor, labor 
performed by free persons, in contradistinction to that of 
slaves. Free love, the doctrine, maintained by some per- 
sons and associations, of the rightlulness of free choice 
in sexual relations, without the restraint of legal marriage 
or of any continuing obligation independent of individual 
will. This doctrine, under different names, but generally 
as part of a religious creed, has been more or less advo- 
cated and practised in many periods and countries ; but 
the above name was probably first applied to it in the 
United States. Free Methodist. See Methodist. Tree 
on board. See F. 0. B Free ovary. See def. 17 (6), 
and ovary. Free Parliament. See convention, 3 (c\ 
Free part, in music, a part added to a canon or fugue 
to complete the harmony ; in a canon, any part which is 
not an antecedent or a consequent. Free path of the 
molecules of a gas. See path. Free reed. Seereedi 
Free Religious Association, a society founded at 
Boston in 1867 for the purpose of religious inquiry. Its 
members are drawn from various religious bodies, and 
great toleration prevails in its meetings. Free services, 
in the feudal system, such services as were not unbecom- 
ing the character of a soldier or freeman to perform, as to 
serve under his lord in the wars, to contribute money, and 
the like. Free Ship. See ship. Free States, in the 
United States, before the civil war of 1861- 6, those States 
in which the institution of slavery did not exist: in con- 
tradistinction to slave States. Free stuff, clear timber ; 
timber free from knots : a builders' term. Free thought, 
thought untrammeled by regard for authority; ration- 
alism. See free-thinker. 
The word free thought is now commonly used, at least 
in foreign literature, to express the result of the revolt of 
the mind against the pressure of external authority in 
any department of life or speculation. Farrar. 
Free town. See free city, under city. Free trade, un- 
restricted trade ; especially, trade or commerce between 
different countries free from restrictions orcustoms-duties; 
in a narrower and more common sense, international trade 
free from protective or discriminative duties; trade sub- 
ject only to such tariffs and regulations as are necessary 
for revenue and police. Complete freedom of trade be- 
tween the several States is prescribed by the Constitu- 
tion of the United States. See protection. Free trade 
and sailors' rights, a popular cry throughout the United 
States in the years immediately preceding and during the 
war of 1812. It was a protest against first, the restric- 
tions which were laid upon neutral commerce, and the con- 
fiscations which followed any violation of these restrictions, 
by the warring nations, France and Great Britain ; and, 
secondly, the right of search for British seamen on Ameri- 
can vessels, which Great Britain claimed as her preroga- 
tive, and repeatedly carried into execution. Free veins, 
in entom., such veins as do not anastomose ; those veins 
which are unconnected with other veins except at their 
origin. Tenure by free alms. See alms. To have a 
free wind. See to sail free, \\nderfree, adv. lo make 
free with, (a) To meddle with. (6) To use liberties with ; 
use, or make use of, with undue freedom. 
II.t A person of free or noble birth; of- 
ten, in early poetry, a lady. 
The night was so nighe, that noyet hym sore, 
Merkit the mountayns & mores aboute. 
Iche freke to his /re held & so the fight endis. 
Destruction of Troy (E. E. T. S.), 1. 7810. 
She's followed her sons down to the strand, 
That chaste and noble fre. 
Romner Uafmand (Child's Ballads, I. 268). 
