free 
free (fre), adv. [< free, .] In a free manner, 
in any sense of the adjective; freely; with free- 
dom or liberty. 
Sir Thomas Lovell, I AS free forgive you 
As I would be forgiven. Shak., Hen. VIII., ii. 1. 
TO sail free, or to go free (ntiut.), to sail somewhat fur- 
ther from the wind than when close-hauled. To work 
free, to be easily cut with a tool, as a piece of wood, 
free (fre), v. [< ME.freen,freosen.< AS.freon, 
freogan, free (< freo, free) (= OFries. friaitt, 
fraia, fria = MLG. vrien, erigen = OHGc.frijan, 
MHG. vrien, vrijen, vriyen, G. (be-)freien = Icel. 
fria = Sw. fria = Dan. fri, make free from), 
mixed with the more orig. verb freon, freogan, 
love, = OS. *frihon, frieltan = D. vrijeu = MLG. 
vrieit, vrigen, LG. frijen = MG. vrien, G. freien 
= Icel. fria = Sw. fria = Dan. fri, court, woo, 
make love to, = Qoth.frijon, frion, love. See 
friend, orig. ppr. of the verb freon, fredgan, 
love.] I. trans. 1. To make free; release from 
restraint or constraint; specifically, to release 
from bondage or from imprisonment : as, to free 
prisoners or slaves. 
Spirit, tine spirit ! I'll free thee 
Within two days for this. Shak., Tempest, i. 2. 
Till the freed Indians in their native groves 
Reap their own fruits. Pope, Windsor Forest, 1. 409. 
2. To rid, as from something obstructive or re- 
strictive; clear; disentangle; disengage: with 
from or of: as, to free a man /row debt, or the 
feet from fetters ; to free the lungs of morbid 
matter; to free a ship from water by pumping 
it out. 
He that is dead is freed from sill. Rom. vi. 7. 
The devil speed him ! no man's pie is freed 
From his ambitious finger. Shak., Hen. VIII., i. 1. 
3f. To remove. 
That ... we may again . . . 
Free from onr feasts and banquets bloody knives. 
Shak., Macbeth, iii. 6. 
With great labour we kept her from sinking by freeing 
out the water. 
Quoted In Capt. Juhn Smith't Works, I. 175. 
4f. To clear from blame or stain; absolve from 
some charge ; gain pardon for. 
My ending is despair, 
Unless I be reliev'd by prayer; 
Which pierces so, that it assaults 
Mercy itself, and/rees all faults. 
Shak., Tempest, Epil. 
for mine honour 
(Which I would free), if I shall be condemn'd 
Upon surmises. Shak., W. T., iii. 2. 
5f. To indorse and send free by mail ; frank. 
Please to free this letter to Miss Lucy Porter in Lich- 
field. Johmon, to Mrs. Thrale, June, 1775. 
To free one's conscience, to do that which conscience 
requires ; relieve the conscience by au act of duty. To 
free one's mind, to speak according to one's feelings; 
utter one's thoughts without restraint or reserve; talk 
plainly : as, I have freed my mind to him, and now he 
may do as he pleases. [Colloq.] 
II. intrans. To make free; take liberties : fol- 
lowed by with. [Colloq.] 
free-and-easy (fre'and-e'zi), ,. [< free and 
easy, phrase under free, a.] A sort of club held 
in public houses, in which the members meet 
to drink, smoke, sing, etc. 
free-bench (fre'bench), . In Eng. law, the 
right of a widow in her husband's copyhold 
lands, corresponding to dower in a freehold. 
Also called frank-bank. 
free-board (fre'bord), n. Naut., the part of the 
side of a vessel or boat which lies between the 
line of flotation and the upper side of the deck 
(or a point corresponding to it), or, when there 
are several decks, of the uppermost water- 
tight deck. 
To allow a sufficient margin for heeling and for rough 
water, the free-board in sailing canoes is seldom less than 
six inches, and will often be found to be eight inches. 
Qualtrough, Boat Sailer's Manual, p. 150. 
When I say monitors I refer to vessels with high free- 
boards. . . . The reason I say high free-boards is that such 
vessels might be able to go to sea at any moment, regard- 
less of the weather. N. A. Jtev., CXXVII. 378. 
freeboot (fre'bot), r. . [= D. vrijbuiten, rob ; 
from the earlier noun : see freebooter.] To act 
as a freebooter ; plunder. [Bare.] 
An ambition to shed blood and to freeboot it furiously 
over the placid waters took possession of their bosoms. 
New York Tribune, Nov. 25, 1879. 
free-boott (fre'bot), . [< freeboot, v., or a re- 
version to free (adj.) boot 3 (booty).'] Robbery. 
Julius Tutor, who robbed his fellow theeves, for he pil- 
laged the Cilicians, that lived themselves upon free boote. 
Sir B. Stapleton, tr. of Juvenal's Satires, viii. 124, note. 
freebooter (fre'bo"ter), . [Not of purely E. 
formation, but made, it seems, like the simi- 
larly accom. forms, Sw. fribytare, Dan. fribyt- 
ter, G. freibeuter, in imitation of MD. vrijbueter, 
2368 
a freebooter, pirate ("Praamiator, pwedo cui 
quicquid ab hoste capitur, in premium cedit ; 
Pirata" Kilian), D. rrijbuiter (> mod. D. vrij- 
buiten, plunder, rob) ; < MD. D. rrij (= E. free, 
etc.) + MD. bueter, a plunderer, D. butter, free- 
booter, < MD. bueteii, buyten, D. buiteii, plunder, 
catch, take, < MD. buet, buyt, D. buit, plunder, 
booty: see booty. See remarks under^/jfcMste)'.] 
One who wanders about in search of plunder; 
a robber; a pillager; a plunderer. 
Richard of England came [to Cyprus] not as ^freebooter, 
but as a deliverer from utter misery. 
Stubbs, Medieval and Modern Hist., p. 161. 
= Syn. Marauder, etc. See robber. 
freeboptery (fre'bo"ter-i), n. [= Sw. Dan. fri- 
bytteri = Q.freibeuterci; as freebooter + -y : see 
-ery.~] The act, practice, or gains of a freeboot- 
er. [Bare.] 
freebooting (fre'bd'ting), n. [Verbal n. of free- 
boot, v.] Bobbery; plunder; pillage. 
Lastly for a theif it (a mantle] is so handsome, as it may 
seeme it was first invented for him ; for under it he can 
cleanly convayanytitt pillage that cometh handsomely in 
his way, and when he goeth abrode in the night on free- 
bootintj, it is his best and surest frend. 
Spenser, State of Ireland. 
freebooting (fre'bo"ting), p. a. Acting as a 
freebooter ; engaged in or occupied with plun- 
der. 
He hastened from his sick-bed into the service of a Cat- 
alan freebooting gentleman. Ticknor, Span. Lit., I. 302. 
The freebootiuff lives which the soldiery led while fight- 
ing in France during the numerous wars must have tended 
materially to unfit them for resuming peaceful pursuits 
when they returned home. 
Ribt 'on-Turner, Vagrants and Vagrancy, p. 53. 
freebooty (fre'bo'ti), n. [Irreg. < free + booty; 
suggested by freebooter.} Pillage or plunder 
by freebooters. Imp. Diet. 
free-born (fre'born), a. [< ME. fre-boren, fre- 
bore = Sw. friboren = Dan. fribaaren; as 
free + born, pp. of bear!.] Born free ; born 
to the conditions and privileges of citizen- 
ship ; not in hereditary vassalage ; inheriting 
liberty. 
Lithe and lysten, gentylmen, 
That be otfrebore blade. 
Lytell Geste of Robyn Hade (Child's Ballads, V. 44). 
Tell me, art thou a Roman ? Ho said, Yea. And the 
chief captain answered. With a great sum obtained I this 
freedom. And Paul said, But I was free born. 
Acts xxii. 27, 28. 
Bor. The soldier's grown too saucy ; 
You must tic him straiter up. 
Archos. I do my best, sir ; 
But men of free-born minds sometimes will fly out. 
Fletcher, Loyal Subject, ii. 1. 
Let them remember themselves to be, not only freeborn 
Englishmen, but freeborn Christians : let them be jealous 
of their spiritual liberty, as well as their temporal. 
Up. Atterbu-nj, Sermons, II. iv. 
free-borough (fre'bur"6), a. An epithet former- 
ly applied in England, in the phrase free-borough 
men, to such men as had not engaged, like the 
frank-pledge men, to become sureties for the 
good behavior of themselves and others. 
free-chase (fre'chas), . Same us frank-chase. 
freecostt (fre'kost), n. Freedom from charges 
or expenses. South. 
free-denizent (fre'den"i-zn), v. t. To make a 
free denizen or citizen of. 
No worldly respects can free-denizen a Christian here, 
and of " peregrinus " make him "civis." 
Bp. Hall, Remains, p. 202. 
freedman (fred'man), . ; pi. freedmen (-men). 
[< freed, pp. of free, + man.'] A man who has 
been a slave and is manumitted or otherwise 
set free : as, the freedmen of ancient Borne ; the 
class of freedmen created by the abolition of 
slavery. 
Appius Claudius brought in a custom of admitting to 
the senate the sons of freedmen. 
Swift, Nobles and Commons, iii. 
The slave is atoned for with thirty solid!, the freed- 
>aan with eighty, the freeman with two hundred, and the 
adaliug with six hundred. Stubbs, Const. Hist., 23. 
The president [in the proclamation of freedom, Jan. 1, 
1883] enjoined upon the freedmen to abstain from all vio- 
lence unless in necessary self-defence, and recommended 
to them in all cases, when allowed to do so, to labor faith- 
fully for reasonable wages ; but gave notice also that suit- 
able persons would be received into the armed service of 
the United States. Amer. Cyc., XV. 101. 
Freedmen's Bureau. See bureau. 
freedom (fre'dum), n. [< tfE.fredom, freedom, 
< AS. freedom (= OFries. fridom, NFries. fri- 
doem = D. vrijdom = MLG. vridom, \jQc.fridom 
= MHG. vrituom), freedom, (.freo, free, + -dom, 
-dom.] 1. The state or character of being free. 
(rt) Exemption from the constraint or restraint of physical 
or moral forces ; the state of being able to act without 
external controlling interference; liberty; in a special 
sense, exemption from bondage or imprisonment. 
freedom 
I else must change 
Their nature, and revoke the high decree, 
Unchangeable, eternal, which onhiin'd 
Their freedom; they themselves ordain'd their fall. 
Milton, P. L., iii. 128. 
In this then consists freedom: viz., in our being able to 
act or not to act, according as we shall choose or will. 
Locke, Human Understanding, II. xxi. 27. 
The doctrine of Freedom was first elaborated into a 
metaphysical scheme, implying its opposite Necessity, by 
St. Augustiu against Pelagius ; and in a later age was dis- 
puted between Arminians and Calvinists: being for cen- 
turies a capital controversy both in Theology and in Meta- 
physics. A. Bain, Emotions and Will, p. 498. 
(b) Exemption from arbitrary, despotic, or autocratic con- 
trol, especially in civil matters ; independence ; civil lib- 
erty. 
A ! fredome is a nobill thing ! 
Fredome mayse man to haiff liking! . . . 
He levys at ese that frely livys. 
Barbour, Bruce. 
If you deny it, let the danger light 
Upon your charter, and yourtity's/reedom. 
Shak., M. of V., iv. 1. 
Grant him this, and the Parlaraent hath no more free- 
dom then if it sate in his Noose. 
Hilton, Eikonoklastes, xxvii. 
By a declaration of rights. I mean one which shall stip- 
ulate freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom 
of commerce against monopolies, trial by juries in all 
cases, no suspensions of the habeas corpus, no standing 
armies. These are fetters against doing evil which no 
honest government should decline. 
Jeffernon, Correspondence, II. 291. 
For what avail the plough or sail, 
Or land or life, if freedom fail? 
Emerson, Centennial Poem. 
(c) Frankness; openness; outspokenness; unrestrictedness. 
You shall 
This morning come before us ; where, I know, 
You cannot with such freedom purge yourself 
But that . . . you must take 
Your patience to you. Shak., Hen. VIII., v. 1. 
This thought of Monsieur Merrie's has made a great 
Breach betwixt Monsieur Verney and himself ; for which 
Reason I had not that freedom of Conversation as I could 
have wisht with both of them. 
Lister, Journey to Paris, p. 67. 
(d) License; improper familiarity; in a concrete sense 
(with a plural), a violation of the rules of decorum; an act 
of bold presumption. 
Peace ! I perceive your eye, sir, 
Is flx'd upon this captain for his freedom ; 
And happily you find his tongue too forward. 
Fletcher, Loyal Subject, ii. 1. 
Those best can bear reproof who merit praise. 
'Twere well might critics still this freedom take. 
I'ope, Essay on Criticism, 1. 584. 
Elizabeth . . . [assured] him that Mr. Darcy would con- 
sider his addressing him without introduction as an im- 
pertinent freedom. 
Jane Auiten, Pride and Prejudice, p. 84. 
(e) The state of being clear or exempt (from something) : 
as, freedom from sickness ; freedom from care. (/) Ease 
or facility (of doing anything) : as, he speaks or acts with 
freedom. 
I always loved you for the Freedom of your Genius. 
Howell, Letters, I. vi. 56. 
A poet's just pretence 
Fervency, freedom, fluency of thought 
Harmony, strength, words exquisitely sought. 
Cowper, Table-Talk, 1. 700. 
(y\) Generosity ; liberality ; open-handedness. Chaucer. 
Blithe was eche a barn ho best migt him plese, 
& folwe him for hisfredom & for his faire thewes. 
For what thing William wan a-day with his bowe . . . 
Ne wold this William neuer on withhold to him-selue. 
William of Palerne (E. E. T. S.), 1. 189. 
2. The possession of particular privileges; fran- 
chise ; immunity : as, the freedom of a city or 
of a corporation. 
It was lately proposed in the city to present him [the 
Duke of Hamilton] with the freedom of some company. 
Walpnle, Letters, II. 43. 
3. A free, unconditional grant; a free privi- 
lege or franchise. [Bare.] 4. In math., ca- 
pability of displacement in space Bird of free- 
dom. See Mrrfi. Degree of freedom, in math., an 
independent mode in which a body may be displaced. 
Thus, a wheel the axis of which is fixed, or a roller which 
is compelled to roll on the ground without sliding or turn- 
ing, has but one degree of freedom that is, it can move 
only forward or back. If it can turn without sliding, or 
slide without turning, either in the direction of its rolling 
or in that of its axis, it has two degrees of freedom ; if it 
is capable of all these motions, it has four degrees of free- 
dom. If one end of it can rise above the surface of the 
ground, it has five ; if both ends can leave the ground, it 
has six degrees of freedom and is perfectly free. Free- 
dom Of repeal t, a free, unconditional recall. 
I kiss thy hand, but not in flattery, Ca;sar; 
Desiring thee that Publius Cimber may 
Have an immediate freedom of repeal. 
Shak., 3. C., iii. 1. 
Freedom Of the Will. See will. =Syn. 1. Freedom., Lib- 
erty, Independence ; scope, range, play, swing, latitude. 
The first three words are sometimes used as synonymous, 
but they are clearly distinguishable. Freedom is the 
most general in its application. Liberty is commonly 
used where reference is made to past or possible physi- 
cal confinement or restriction : as, the prisoners were set 
at liberty. Freedom is used where emphasis is laid upon 
