Free a.

Forms: 1 frío, fréo, freoh, frioh, frí, frý, fríȝ, 2–3 fri(e, 3–4 freo, (3 south. vreo), 4 fry, frey, south. vry, vri, 6 frye, 6–7 (chiefly Sc.) frie, 2–6 fre, 4– free. [Com. Teut.: OE. fréo, frío, fríȝ corresponds to OFris. frî, OS. frî (recorded only as sb. and in the compound frî-lîk;K Du. vrij), OHG. frî (MHG. vrî, mod. Ger. frei), ON. *frí-r (lost exc. in the compound friáls:—*frî-hals ‘free-necked,’ free; the mod.Icel. frí, Sw., Da. fri are adopted from Ger.), Goth. frei-s:—OTeut. *frijo- free:—OAryan *priyo-, represented by Skr. priyá dear, Welsh rhŷdd free, f. root *pri to love (Skr. prî to delight, endear; OSl. prijatelĭ friend, Goth. frijôn, OE. fréon to love, whence FRIEND).

  The primary sense of the adj. is ‘dear’; the Germanic and Celtic sense comes of its having been applied as the distinctive epithet of those members of the household who were connected by ties of kindred with the head, as opposed to the slaves. The converse process of sense-development appears in Lat. lōberō ‘children,’ literally the ‘free’ members of the household.]

  I.  Not in bondage to another.

  1.  Of persons: Not bound or subject as a slave is to his master; enjoying personal rights and liberty of action as a member of a society or state.

c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xli. § 2. Gif hwyle swiþe rice cyning … næfde nænne fryne [MS. Cott. freone] mon on eallon his rice, ac wæron ealle þeowe.

c. 1000.  Ælfric, Exod. xxi. 2. Þeowie he six ȝer and beo him freoh on þam seofoðan.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 6708 (Gött.).

1535.  Coverdale, Job iii. 19. There are small and greate: the bonde man, and he that is fre from his master.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., IV. xiv. 81.

1657.  R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 16. These are free Negroes, and wear upon the small of one of their legs, the badge of their freedom; which is a small piece of silver, or tin, as big as the stale of a Spoon; which comes round about the leg.

1841.  Lane, Arab. Nts., I. 65. It sometimes happens, though rarely, that free girls are sold as slaves.

  b.  fig. (esp. in a spiritual sense = not in bondage to sin).

c. 975.  Rushw. Gosp., John viii. 36. Gif forðon sunu iow ȝefrioð soðlice frio ȝe bioðon.

c. 1200.  Trin. Coll. Hom., 101. He hadde maked hem fre of þe deules þralsipe.

1513.  Douglas, Æneis, X. iii. 84. Than of the fatis fre [orig. libera fati.], in thar navy.

1610.  Shaks., Temp., Epilogue, 20.

1611.  Bible, Gal. v. 1. Stand fast therefore in the libertie wherewith Christ hath made vs free, and bee not intangled againe with the yoke of bondage.

1643.  Denham, Cooper’s Hill, 129.

1695.  Ld. Preston, Boeth., IV. 194. Everything is by so much the freer from Fate.

  c.  Of or belonging to free men. Free labor: the labor of free men (in contradistinction to that of slaves).

1856.  Olmsted, A Journey in the Seaboard Slave States, 100. On the whole, he is satisfied that at present free-labor is more profitable than slave-labor, though his success is not so evident that he would be willing to have attention particularly called to it.

  2.  Of a state, its citizens, institutions, etc.: Enjoying civil liberty; existing under a government which is not arbitrary or despotic, and does not encroach upon individual rights. Also, not subject to foreign dominion.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, I. 219.

1382.  Wyclif, 1 Macc. xi. 31. And Jerusalem be holy, and free, with his coostis.

1611.  Shaks., Cymb., III. i. 49.

1667.  Milton, P. L., I. 258.

1770.  Junius Lett., xxxvii. 184. That he is king of a free people, is indeed his greatest glory.

1792.  Residence in France (1797), I. 155. The timid or indolent inhabitant of London, whose head has been filled with the Bastilles and police of the ancient government, and who would as soon have ventured to Constantinople as to Paris, reads, in the debates of the Convention, that France is now the freeest country in the world, and that strangers from all corners of it flock to offer their adorations in this new Temple of Liberty.

1802.  Wordsw., Sonn., ‘It is not to be thought of that the flood.’

1817–8.  Cobbett, Resid. U. S. (1822), 21. Is it not a mockery to call a man free, who no more dares turn out his tallow into candles for his own use, than he dares rob upon the highway?

1867.  Smiles, Huguenots Eng., xi. (1880), 187. Bayle designated Holland ‘the great ark of the fugitives.’ It became the chief European centre of free thought, free religion, and free industry.

  † 3.  Noble, honorable, of gentle birth and breeding. In ME. a stock epithet of compliment. Often in alliterative phr. fair and free. Obs.

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 1642 (Gr.).

c. 1000.  Ags. Ps. lvi[i]. 9.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 109/100. Þe Amirales douȝter to him seide þat was so fair and fre.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 420.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 8121 (Cott).

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., A. 795. My ioy, my blys, my lemman fre.

a. 1366[?].  Chaucer, Rom. Rose, 633.

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 125.

c. 1489.  Caxton, Sonnes of Aymon, ix. 199. They met wyth damp Rambault, the free knyght.

c. 1554.  Interlude of Youth, in Hazl., Dodsley, II. 20.

1632.  Milton, L’Allegro, 11. But com thou Goddes fair and free.

  † 4.  Hence in regard to character and conduct: Noble, honorable, generous, magnanimous. Obs.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 25523.

c. 1400.  Destr. Troy, 525.

1559.  Mirr. Mag., Salisbury, xviii.

1594.  H. Willobie, in Shaks. C. Praise, 16.

1604.  Shaks., Oth., III. iii. 199.

  † b.  Of studies: Liberal; = L. ingenuæ (artes).

1422.  trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. (E.E.T.S.), 150. He sholde make his chyldryn to lerne fre Sciencis of Clergi.

  II.  Released, loose, unrestricted.

  5.  At liberty; allowed to go where one wishes, not kept in confinement or custody. † Free keeping = L. libera custodia. Also, released from confinement or imprisonment, liberated. Phr. to set free, let go free, etc. (Also fig.)

1483.  Caxton, Gold. Leg., 206/2. And ij yere he was in free kepyng and disputed ayenst the Iewes.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy. Turkie, I. xx. 24 b. He wold as he had promised them set them at free deliuerance: & that therfore without fearing any thing he wold cause them al to com out of the castle.

1608.  Shaks., Per., IV. vi. 107.

1720.  De Foe, Capt. Singleton, xvi. (1840), 269. We would let them go free.

a. 1721.  Prior, Love disarmed, 25.

1824.  Syd. Smith, Wks. (1859), II. 37/2. We use no compulsion with untried prisoners. You are free as air till you are found guilty.

1871.  Morley, Voltaire (1886), 2. Calvin … set free all those souls that were more anxious to look the tremendous facts of necessity and evil and punishment full in the face, than to reconcile them with any theory of the infinite mercy and loving-kindness of a supreme creator.

  b.  Of animals: Not kept in confinement, at liberty to range abroad.

1393.  Langl., P. Pl., C. XII. 250. For lewede folke, godes foules · and hus free bestes.

1697.  Dryden, Æneid, VI. 887.

1844.  A. B. Welby, Poems (1867), 35.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 312. Deer, as free as in an American forest, wandered there by thousands.

  6.  Released from ties, obligations, or constraints upon one’s action.

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. i. 142. Till by helping Baptista’s eldest daughter to a husband we set his youngest free for a husband.

a. 1605.  Montgomerie, Commend. of Love, 1.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., II. v. 57.

a. 1721.  Prior, Song, ‘Phillis, since we,’ 18.

1859.  Autobiog. Beggar Boy, 2. You have only known me since I was what may be termed a free man; or, in other words, since I became independent by the application of my energies to honest industry.

  b.  Released or exempt from work or duty.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 639.

1700.  S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 300. They watch, and are free by turns in the day-time, but at night they must all be in the Fort upon pain of Death.

a. 1715.  Burnet, Own Time (1766), II. 37. Coleman had a whole day free to make his escape.

c. 1818.  Sir R. Peel, in Croker Papers (1884), I. iv. 116. A fortnight hence I shall be free as air—free from ten thousand engagements which I cannot fulfil.

  7.  Guiltless, innocent, acquitted. Const. from, of (a. crime or offence). ? Obs.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 252. Your Maiestie and wee that haue free soules, it touches vs not.

1637.  Rutherford, Lett., 23 Sept. (1891), 521. I am free from the blood of all men, for I have communicated to you the whole counsel of God.

1657.  R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 3. There is no place so void and empty, where some lawful pleasure is not to be had, for a man that hath a free heart, and a good Conscience.

1678.  Dryden & Lee, Œdipus, III. i (end).

  8.  Of actions, activity, motion, etc.: Unimpeded, unrestrained, unrestricted, unhampered. Also of persons: Unfettered in their action.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 13079. Þe king þam lete haf fre entre.

c. 1400.  Lanfranc’s Cirurg., 152. Þe necke schal neuere have his free mevynge.

1463.  Bury Wills (Camden), 22. Haue hire liberte of fre owth goyng and in comyng at the gate.

1535.  Coverdale, 2 Thess. iii. 1. That the worde of God maye haue fre passage.

1598.  Shaks., Merry W., III. ii. 86. We shall haue the freer woing at M^r Pages.

1613.  Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 292. That the water may have free passage to all parts.

1655.  Fuller, The Church-History of Britain, V. iii. § 62. Whilst each Bishop in his respective Diocesse, Priest in his Parish, were freer than formerly in execution of their Office, acquitted from Papal dependance.

1664.  H. More, Myst. Iniq., Apol. 552. As if one, while his friend was stooping, should fetch a freer stroke at their common Enemy.

1713.  Berkeley, Guardian, No. 49, 7 May, ¶ 7. A gallery of pictures, a cabinet, or library that I have free access to, I think my own.

1791.  Mrs. Radcliffe, Rom. Forest, vi. The negligence of her dress, loosened for the purpose of freer respiration, discovered the graces which her auburn tresses that fell in profusion over her bosom, shaded, but could not conceal.

1828.  Ld. Grenville, Sink. Fund, p. viii. Truth alone is my object; and, without the free examination of previously received opinion, no branch of human knowledge can ever be advanced.

1851.  Ruskin, Stones Ven., xvii. (1874) I. 188. For those who are willing to remain at rest, so they have free admission of the light of Heaven.

1875.  Jowett, Plato (ed. 2), III. 112, The Republic, Introduction. In the third stage, or democracy, the various passions are allowed to have free play, and the virtues and vices are impartially cultivated.

  b.  phr. (To have or give) a free hand: liberty of action in affairs that one has to deal with. So to have one’s hands free.

1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xiv. 329. Harold thus had his hands free.

1890.  J. Corbett, Drake, ix. 117. He was given a free hand to act against the East and West India convoys.

1895.  Col. Maurice, in United Service Mag., July, 414. No one ever had, in the composition of any history, official or other, a freer hand or more ample resources.

  c.  with to and inf.: At liberty, allowed, or permitted to do something. Also, † permitted by one’s conscience, feeling it right to do something.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Wife’s Prol., 49.

1666.  Pepys, Diary, 1 May. My cosen Thomas Pepys did come to me, to consult about the business of his being a Justice of the Peace, which he is much against; and, among other reasons, tells me, as a confidant, that he is not free to exercise punishment according to the Act against Quakers and other people, for religion.

1667.  Milton, P. L., III. 98.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. iii. 31. Privateers are not obliged to any Ship, but free to go ashore where they please, or to go into any other Ship that will entertain them, only paying for their Provision.

1812.  H. & J. Smith, Horace in Lond., 83.

1818.  Scott, Heart Midl., xix. If ye arena free in conscience to speak for her in the court of judicature, follow your conscience.

1840.  Dickens, Old C. Shop, xxxi. The servant-maids felt her inferiority, for they were better treated; free to come and go, and regarded in their stations with much more respect.

1876.  Smiles, Sc. Natur., iii. (ed. 4), 59. He was thoroughly sick of his trae, and wished to engage in some other occupation that would leave him freer to move about.

  d.  Not fettered in judgment; unbiased, open-minded.

1653.  H. More, Antid. Ath., I. xi. (1712), 35. I appeal to any free Judge how likely these liquid particles are [etc.]. Ibid., III. xvi. (1712), 141. His own words are so free and ingenuous, and his judgment so considerable.

1686.  Burnet, Trav., i. (1750), 60. I wish they had larger and freer souls.

  e.  Showing absence of constraint or timidity in one’s movements.

1849.  G. P. R. James, The Woodman, vii. The traveller came forward with a bold, free step.

  9.  Of literary or artistic composition, etc.: Not observing strict laws of form; (of a translation, copy, etc.) not adhering strictly to the original.

1813.  Tytler, Ess. Princ. Transl. (ed. 3), 231. The limits between free translation and paraphrases are more easily perceived than they can be well defined.

1821.  W. M. Craig, Lectures on Drawing, etc., vii. 406. It is not well suited to a free and tasteful expression of the minute forms in landscape.

1844.  Stanley, Arnold, I. iii. 121. The rapidity with which he would pounce on any mistake of grammar or construction, however dexterously concealed in the folds of a free translation.

1869.  Ouseley, Counterp., xv. 97. When … it becomes impossible to follow exactly all the intervals proposed…. The imitation is then said to be Free, or Irregular.

  10.  Allowable or allowed (to or for a person to do something); open or permitted to.

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 216. In what one thing can we excel others, if that which we haue learned, be free for euery man to know and exercise him with all?

1618.  Bolton, Florus, To the Reader. Be it free, with reverence and modesty, to note over-sights.

1641.  J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 44. It was free to every one to bastinado a Christian where he met him, with staves, stickes, clubs, bridles, rods, whips, ropes.

1667.  Milton, P. L., IV. 747.

1709.  Hearne, Collect., 4 April. Y^e Copy was in y^e Publick Library, free to y^e View of any one y^t desir’d it.

1796.  Burke, Lett. Noble Ld., Wks. VIII. 32. His grace may think as meanly as he will of my deserts in the far greater part of my conduct in life. It is free for him to do so.

1846.  Trench, Mirac., xxxii. (1862), 452. The ‘twelve legions of Angels,’ whom it was free to Him to summon to his aid.

  b.  Open to all competitors; open for all. Free fight: a fight in which all and sundry engage promiscuously.

1870.  Lowell, Study Wind., 430. Mr. Bowles made an angry and unmannerly retort, among other things charging Gilchrist with the crime of being a tradesman’s son, whereupon the affair became what they call on the frontier a free fight, in which Gilchrist, Roscoe, the elder Disraeli, and Byron took part with equal relish, though with various fortune.

1872.  ‘Mark Twain,’ Innoc. Abr., xvii. 114. The sailors of a British ship, being happy with grog, came down on the pier and challenged our sailors to a free fight.

1881.  Chicago Times, 11 June. The grand free-for-all horse race, open to the world.

1887.  Spectator, LX. 4 June, 759/2. English riots are mere free-fights, begun without special premeditation, and carried out with very little principle but that of ‘wherever you see a head, hit it.’

  11.  Of a space, way, passage, etc.: Clear of obstructions, open, unobstructed. So of air = freely-circulating, in which one breathes freely.

c. 1250.  Gen. & Ex., 3243.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5931 (Gött.).

1596.  Shaks., Tam. Shr., I. ii. 233.

1671.  Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 145. They did meet with no Ice, but a free and open Sea.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., I. 47.

1808.  Scott, Marm., I. iv.

1853.  Patmore, Tamerton Church-Tower, 18.

1856.  Kane, Arct. Expl., I. iii. 35. The wind off shore, but hauling to the southward, with much free water.

  12.  Clear of (something which is regarded as objectionable or an encumbrance). Const. of from.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 5923.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., XV. xlii. (1495), 503. Creta is an ylonde free and clene of venyme.

1670.  Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 20. Every Man is commanded to keep himself clean, and free from Lice, upon forfeiture of his daily Allowance to the Party accusing him.

1688.  R. Holme, Armoury, III. 236/2. I my self have seen a Woman all Hairy, no part of her Face free, having a long Beard, about the Year 1661.

1698.  J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 119. The Parseys draw Wine a-kin to Toddy, which after the Sun is up, contracts an Eagerness with an heady Quality; so that these places are seldom free from Soldiers and Seamen of the Moors.

1756.  C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 120. There is hardly any mine, of what kind soever, free from pyrite.

1854.  G. B. Richardson, Univ. Code, v. (ed. 12), 4105. I can keep free with the pumps.

1860.  Tyndall, Glac., I. xix. 135. The walls [of the glacier] were of transparent blue ice, singularly free from air-bubbles.

1885.  Law Times, LXXIX. 4 July, 176/1. The main travelling ways and upper parts of the mine had been duly inspected that morning and reported free from any accumulation of foul gas.

  13.  † a. Of a bird’s flight: Agile, swift. Obs.

1657.  R. Ligon, Barbadoes (1673), 4. Her ordinary flying for her own pleasure, and not for prey, is commonly more free than the best Haggard Faulcon. Ibid., This Bird, is a kind of sea Hawk, somewhat bigger than a Lanner, and of that colour; but of a far freer wing, and of a longer continuance.

  b.  Naut. Of the wind: Not adverse (see quot. 1867).

1840.  R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxv. 81. As we had the wind free, the booms were run out, and every one was aloft, active as cats, laying out on the yards and booms, reeving the studding-sail gear; and sail after sail the captain piled upon her, until she was covered with canvas, her sails looking like a great white cloud resting upon a black speck.

1867.  Smyth, Sailor’s Word-bk., s.v. Freeing.… When all the water is pumped or baled out, the vessel is said to be free. Said of the wind when it exceeds 67° 30′ from right-ahead.

1880.  Daily Tel., 7 Sept. She is on the wrong tack, but the last puff was free, and helped her.

  14.  Of material things: Not restrained in movement, not fixed or fastened. To get free: to get loose (from something that restrains or encumbers), to extricate.

1590.  Spenser, F. Q., I. i. 19.

1667.  Milton, P. L., VII. 463.

1861.  J. R. Greene, Man. Anim. Kingd., Cœlent., 114. Cuvier, indeed, associated the Velellidæ, Medusidæ, and free zoöids of the Lucernaridæ in a single group, under the name of ‘Acelèphes Simples.’

1862.  H. Spencer, First Princ., II. x. § 82 (1875), 250. When the pennant of a vessel lying becalmed first shows the coming breeze, it does so by gentle undulations that travel from its fixed to its free end.

1878.  E. Prout, in Grove, Dict. Mus., I. 40. Its [the æolina’s] value for artistic purposes was nil; its only interest is a historical one, as being one of the earliest attempts to make practical use of the discovery of the free reed.

1884.  F. J. Britten, The Watch and Clockmakers’ Handbook, Free Spring…. A balance spring uncontrolled by curb pins.

1890.  Boldrewood, Colonial Reform. (1891), 149. The yacht, sweeping like a seamew over the rippling, gaily-breaking billow, with courses free and a merry company aboard, holds high excitement and joyous freedom from the world’s cankering cares.

  15.  Disengaged from contact or connection with some other body or surface; relieved from the pressure of an adjacent or superincumbent body. In Bot., not adnate to other organs. Free-central: see quot. 1845.

1715.  Leoni, Palladio’s Archit. (1742), II. 10. This defect may be remedy’d, by making over the Architraves (in the height of the frize) Arches that will bear the weight, and leave the Architraves free.

1830.  R. Knox, Béclard’s Anat., 374. At the free surface of the mucous membrane.

1845.  Lindley, Sch. Bot., i. (1858), 16. If it [the placenta] grows in the middle of the ovary, without adhering to its sides … it is called free central.

1861.  Miss Pratt, Flower. Pl., I. 8. The anthers remaining separate, and being termed free.

1870.  Hooker, Stud. Flora, 105. Carpels 1 or more, free or connate or adnate to the calyx-tube.

  16.  Chem., etc. Uncombined.

1800.  trans. Lagrange’s Chem., I. 244. The nitric acid remains free in the liquor.

1851.  Carpenter, Man. Phys. (ed. 2), 51. By the decomposition of the carbonic acid, oxygen is set-free.

1862.  Ansted, Channel Isl., IV. xx. (ed. 2), 464. If is chiefly a silicate of alumina, with some free silica, and a trace of iron.

c. 1865.  J. Wylde, in Circ. Sc., I. 148/2. A few grains of kaolin, or pipe-clay, may be added to neutralise an excess of free acid.

  17.  Of power or energy: Disengaged, available for ‘work.’

1825.  J. Nicholson, Operat. Mechanic, 662. The whole power of the engine would be expended in impelling itself and the ship containing it, at the supposed rate, and no free power would remain for freight.

1837.  Brewster, Magnet., 365. The decomposition of the neutral fluid will begin immediately, and will continue till the action of the free fluid is in equilibrio with the external force.

1838.  Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc., I. 6. Proving that free electricity is not, under any circumstances, conducted silently to the earth.

  18.  Of a material: Yielding easily to operation, easily worked, loose and soft in structure. Also free-working: see D. 1. a below. See also FREESTONE, whence this sense prob. arises.

1573.  in Willis & Clark, Cambridge (1886), I. 174. Item for Ramsey stone free and ragge.

1676.  Wood, Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 353. Many flat stones, but being free and soft, their inscriptions are woren out.

1765.  A. Dickson, Treat. Agric. (ed. 2), 59. Fallowing land is a custom that now prevails in many places; and even that kind of land that is most free and open in its nature, is found to be rendered more fertile by it.

1793.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 106. This stone was capable of being thus wrought, and was so free to the tool.

1807.  Vancouver, Agric. Devon (1813), 11. In those places where the upper parts of the rock are of a splintry texture, rising below in rhomboidal or cubical fragments, exhibiting in their fracture a dun, or rather liver-coloured appearance, and the small stones on the surface are found to be encrusted with a brown, or rather yellowish kind of ochre, it is generally called free, or Dunstone land.

  b.  Of wood: Without knots. (So free-stuff: see D. 2.)

1678.  [see FROUGHY 2].

1770.  Kuckahn, in Phil. Trans., LX. 315. Out of any soft free wood, cut an artificial one as near the shape of it as possible.

  III.  Characterized by spontaneity, readiness or profuseness in action.

  19.  Of a person, his will, etc.: Acting of one’s own will or choice, and not under compulsion or constraint; determining one’s own action or choice, not motived from without. (See also FREE WILL.)

c. 888.  K. Ælfred, Boeth., xli. § 2. Forþæm he ȝesceop twa ȝesceadwisan ȝesceafta frio [MS. Cott. freo], englas & men.

c. 1400.  Rom. Rose, 7441.

1601.  ? Marston, Pasquil & Katherine, I. 180. Sir. Edw. Nay, be free, my daughters, in election.

1606.  Shaks., Tr. & Cr., II. ii. 168.

1662.  Stillingfl., Orig. Sacr., III. iii. § 5. Considering man as a free agent, there can be no way imagined so consonant to the nature of man as this was, because thereby he might declare his obedience to God to be the matter of his free choyce.

1732.  Berkeley, Alciphr., VII. § 22. A man is said to be Free, so far forth as he can do what he will.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 561. From the day when he quitted Friesland to the day when his followers separated at Kilpatrick, he had never been a free agent.

1869.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), III. xi. 6. The choice of the electors would be perfectly free.

  20.  Ready in doing or granting anything; acting willingly or spontaneously; (of an act done of one’s own accord; (of an offer, assent, etc.) readily given or made, made with good will.

c. 1386.  Chaucer, Prol., 851.

1535.  Coverdale, 1 Kings x. 13. And Kynge Salomon gaue vnto y^e Quene of riche Arabia, all that she desyred and axed, besydes that which he gaue her of a frye hande.

1549.  Bk. Com. Prayer, Collect 20th Sund. Trinity. That we maye with free hearts accomplyshe those thynges that thou wouldest have done.

1576.  A. Fleming, A Panoplie of Epistles, 121. There is no kinde of thing, which Cæsars highnesse, of his owne accord, wil not graunt and giue of his free bountie.

1607.  Shaks., Timon, I. ii. 188.

1611.  Tourneur, The Atheist’s Tragedie, 1. i.

1618.  Bolton, Florus (1636), 13. Tarqiunius … of his own free courage demanding the Kingdome, had it as freely granted, for his industry, and noble carriage.

a. 1626.  Bacon, New Atl., Wks. 1802, II. 132. His noble free offers left us nothing to ask.

1651.  C. Cartwright, Certamen Religiosum, I. 206. God doth justifie us (saith he) of his free-goodnes, whereby he doth embrace us in Christ, whiles that he clothes us being ingraffed into him with Christs innocency and righteousnesse.

1882.  Ogilvie, s.v. He made him a free offer of his services.

  b.  with inf.: Ready to do something; eager, willing, prompt. Obs. exc. in phr. free to confess, where the adj. is now apprehended as in 8 c.

1660.  Trial Regic., 22. I shall be very free to open my Heart.

1699.  Dampier, Voy., II. v. 94. He was very free to talk with me, and first asked me my business thither?

a. 1716.  Blackall, Wks. (1723), I. 276. To part with anything in this World … and to be free to suffer any temporal Loss … rather than live in a State of strong Temptation to Sin.

1722.  Sewel, Hist. Quakers (1795), I. in. 191. But they were not free to consent thereto, because they esteemed this demand unjust, not being guilty of the breach of any law.

1784.  New Spectator, xvi. 6/2. For my own part, I will be free to confess, that, in my opinion, [etc.].

1821.  Clare, The Village Minstrel, I. 40. lxxv.

1824.  Byron, Juan, XVI. lxxiii.

1874.  Ruskin, Fors Clav., xxxvii. 4. I am free to confess I did not quite know the sort of creature I had to deal with.

  c.  Of a horse: Ready to go, willing.

1477.  Sir J. Paston, in P. Lett., No. 802, III. 200. It shall neu^r neede to prykk nor threte a free horse.

a. 1592.  Greene, Alphonsus, IV. Wks. (Rtldg.), 242/1.

1673.  E. Brown, Brief Acc. Trav., 71. They [Servian horses] are very free.

1884.  Daily News, 23 July, 7/2. ‘Free horses’—horses that is … that have been working in pairs, and have been too conscientious in their work, and have done more than their share.

  21.  Ready in giving, liberal, lavish. Const. of

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 14396 (Cott).

1611.  Bible, 2 Chron. xxix. 31. As many as were of a free heart.

1663.  Butler, Hud., I. i. 496.

1699.  Dampier, Voy., II. I. 84. The Tonquinese in general are very free to their Visitants, treating them with the best cheer they are able to procure.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. iv. I tossed her a bit of Biscuit, tho’ by the way I was not very free of it, for my Store was not great.

1740.  Garrick, Lying Valet, II. Wks. 1798, I. 53. When he’s drunk, which is commonly once a day, he’s very free, and will give me any thing!

1871.  Freeman, Norm. Conq. (1876), IV. xviii. 185. Handsome in person and free of hand, he [Eadgar] had not yet shown how little of real constancy there was in him.

  b.  Of a gift: Given out of liberality or generosity (not in return or requital for something else).

c. 1380.  Wyclif, Sel. Wks., III. 312. To fynde goode prestis bi fre almes of þe peple.

1548.  Udall, etc., Erasm. Par., Matt. i. 21. Iesus Christe, who was the messinger of this free felicitie.

1583.  Fulke, Defence, xv. 403. The worde χάρισμα … signifieth … ‘a free gift,’ or a gift that is freely giuen … wherof the Prouerbe is, what is so free as gift?

1791.  Gentl. Mag., LXI. I. May, 411/2. Benefices are now, I might almost say never a free gift from a private patron, or any reward or testimony of the clerk’s merit.

  22.  Acting without restriction or limitation; allowing oneself ample measure in doing something.

1578.  Timme, Caluine on Gen., 86. Being convinced … that he was too free in sinning.

1632.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Eromena, 147. I cannot beleeve that either too light, or too free-feeding hath occasioned you this dreame.

1727.  Pope, Th. Var. Subj., Swift’s Wks. 1755, II. I. 224. How free the present age is in laying taxes on the next.

1746.  Berkeley, Lett. Tar-water, ii. § 9. It may be no easy matter to persuade such as have long indulged themselves in the free use of strong fermented liquors and distilled spirits.

1791.  Gentl. Mag., LXI. I. Jan., 26/2. Probably no divine made a freer use of the paronomasia than Dan. Featley, one of the most celebrated preachers of his time; several pages of his sermons consistinng of a series of verbal quibbles and jingles.

1858.  Hawthorne, Fr. & It. Jrnls., I. 191. He is apparently so free and careless in displaying his precious wares,—putting inestimable gems and brooches great and small into the hands of strangers like ourselves, and leaving scores of them strewn on the top of his counter,—that it would seem easy enough to take a diamond or two; but I suspect there must needs be a sharp eye somewhere.

1884.  Manch. Exam., 4 April, 4/5. At the close [of the market] the tone is easy, with free sellers.

  b.  Free of or with: using or employing without reserve or restraint.

1632.  Lithgow, Trav., III. 92. He was so free of his stomacke to receive in strong liquor, that for the space of twenty daies of my being there, I never saw him, nor any one of the other three truely sober.

1653.  Bogan, Mirth Chr. Life, 80. Grotius, the freest man of his tongue that ever I knew.

1700.  S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 196. He was not free of his Discourse, except sometimes in the Relation of his Voyages, and the Description of the Countries he had seen.

1737.  H. Bracken, Farriery Impr. (1757), II. 258. He [Boyle] gives us a Caution not to be too free with such Preparations.

  e.  Unstinted as to supply, quantity, etc.; coming forth in profusion; administered without stint; abundant, copious. (Used with mixture of sense 8.)

1635.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Banish’d Virg., 86. His wounded thigh by its free bleeding gave the spectators eye occasion to suspect the wound to be farre more dangerous than it was.

1707.  Hearne, Collect., 21 July. After a free glass or two, he (M^r. H.) happen’d to discourse.

1806.  Med. Jrnl., XV. 218. I have frequently found in old ulcerated legs, a free stimulus given to the absorbent system attended with the very best effects.

1822–34.  Good, Study Med. (ed. 4), I. 244. The skin warm, the pulse free and forcible.

1887.  Baring-Gould, Gaverocks, I. xii. 179. A monthly rose that was a free bloomer.

  23.  Frank and open in conversation or intercourse, ingenuous, unreserved; also, in bad sense = over-free, forward, ‘familiar,’ ready to ‘take liberties.’

1635.  Quarles, Embl., I. iv. (1718), 18.

1635.  J. Hayward, trans. Biondi’s Banish’d Virg., 185. But Gradamoro for being of a free nature, suffering himselfe to be wholly guided by affection, quite forgot all circumspection, a quality most necessary in such an affaire.

1671.  Narborough, Jrnl., in Acc. Sev. Late Voy., I. (1711), 132. These Antipodes began to be somewhat bolder, and more free, so that they indeavoured to begin a truck or Merchandize with the Yacht, and began to come on board.

1693–4.  Gibson, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 217. His Grace is very free and open.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, II. vi. I pressed him to be free and plain with me in what he had to say.

1775.  Sheridan, St. Patrick’s Day, II. ii. Lau. Not so free, fellow!

1800.  Mrs. Hervey, The Mourtray Family, II. 171. Daring and free as was this young nobleman, with women whose principles were as free as his own, he yet respected virtue.

1854.  Hawthorne, Eng. Note-bks. (1883), I. 464. I judge him to be a very able man, with the Western sociability and free-fellowship.

  24.  To make (or be) free with: to adopt very familiar terms in one’s conversation or dealings with (a person); hence gen. and transf. to treat unceremoniously, take liberties with. Also Naut., to approach boldly.

1708.  Swift, Abolit. Chr., Wks. 1755, II. I. 84. Great wits love to be free with the highest objects; and if they cannot be allowed a God to revile or renounce, they will speak evil of dignities, abuse the government, and reflect upon the ministry.

1714.  Addison, Spect., No. 556, 18 June, ¶ 7. I was once like to have been run through the Body for making a little too free with my Betters.

1728.  N. Salmon, in Lett. Lit. Men (Camden), 36. The Itinerary of Antoninus I find all authors making free with, condemning it for blunders, and altering figures as suits best with their schemes.

1783.  Hist. Miss Baltimores, II. 79. If I can infuse into Carleton’s ear, that Sedly and her ladyship make too free, he may … propose setting me as a watch over his wife’s conduct.

1803.  Nelson, 10 Aug., in Nicolas, Disp., VIII. 155. You are … to approach Toulon with great caution, and not make too free with the entrance of the harbour.

1826.  Disraeli, Viv. Grey, VI. i. If he find in the morning no paymaster for his job, he may with justice make free with our baggage.

1833.  Ht. Martineau, Vanderput & Snoek, i. 7. Rebuked him for being so free with the pastor.

1856.  Reade, Never too Late, l. I advise you not to make so free with your servants.

1858.  Merc. Marine Mag., V. Aug., 226. Avoiding this patch, you may make free with the western shore to within half a cable’s length.

  25.  Of speech: Characterized by liberty in the expression of sentiments or opinions; uttered or expressed without reserve; frank, plain-spoken.

1611.  Tourneur, The Atheist’s Tragedie, V. ii. Wks. 1878. I. 148.

1625.  Bacon, Ess., Counsel (Arb.), 329. For else Counsellours will but take the Winde of him; And in stead of giuing Free Counsell, sing him a Song of Placebo.

1680.  H. More, Apocal. Apoc., 107. These will rejoyce when the two Witnesses are slain, their free rebukes out of the word of God being very disquieting and tormenting to these worldly and carnally minded men.

1712.  Steele, Spect., No. 493, 25 Sept., ¶ 1. The Mistress and the Maid shall quarrel, and give each other very free Language.

1794.  Nelson, 19 March, in Nicolas, Disp., I. 375. Gave Lord Hood my free opinion that 800 troops, with 400 seamen, would take Bastia, and that not attacking it I could not but consider as a National disgrace.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. –66. The conversation at table was free; and the weaknesses of the prince whom the confederates hoped to manage were not spared.

1884.  L. J. Jennings in Croker Papers (1884), I. viii. 238. Men used rather free expressions to each other—and not to each other only, but to women—in the days of the Regency.

  b.  Not observing due bounds, ‘loose,’ licentious.

1852.  Thackeray, Esmond, III. iii. Where she spoke and listened to much free talk.

1859.  Tennyson, Enid, 1138.

  IV.  Not burdened, not subject or liable, exempt; invested with special rights or privileges.

  26.  (With const. from or of): a. Released or exempt from, not liable to (e.g., a rule, penalty, payment).

c. 1000.  Ags. Gosp., Matt. xvii. 26. Eornestlice þa barn senden frie.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 3240 (Cott.). O þi trout þan mak i þe fre.

1630.  R. Johnson, Relations of the Most Famous Kingdoms, etc., 185. If it happen, that three yeares together he carry the Prize, he is free from all tax and imposition whatsoever, all his life after.

1690.  Locke, Hum. Und., II. xxi. § 60. The Will, free from the Determination of such Desires, is left to the pursuit of nearer Satisfactions, and to the removal of those Uneasinesses which it then feels in its want of, and longings after them.

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 7. That the Roman Catholic, where the interests of his religion were concerned, thought himself free from all the ordinary rules of morality.

  b.  Exempt from, having immunity from, not subject to (some circumstances or affection regarded as hurtful or undesirable).

c. 1200.  Ormin, 16818.

c. 1230.  Hali Meid., 5. Freo ouer alle fram alle worldliche weanen.

1581.  Sidney, Apol. Poetrie (Arb.), 55. As for Poetrie it selfe, it is the freest from thys obiection.

1594.  Hooker, Eccl. Pol., IV. ix. § 2. The freer our minds are from all distempered affections, the sounder and better is our judgment.

1611.  Shaks., Wint. T., I. ii. 264.

1698.  J. Fryer, A New Account of East-India and Persia, 35. When they feel themselves freest from Sickness, though all Perspiration through the Pores by Sweat is dried up.

1798.  Ferriar, Illustr. Sterne, vi. 179. Our own writers are not free from this error; and it would not be unworthy their consideration, that a sentence, which is so much refined as to admit of several different senses, may perhaps have no direct claim to any sense.

1822.  Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Confess. Drunkard. Now, except when I am losing myself in a sea of drink, I am never free from those uneasy sensations in head and stomach, which are so much worse to bear than any definite pains or aches.

1885.  Manch. Exam., 21 May, 5/3. These Highlanders are notoriously free from pulmonary consumption.

1896.  Sir N. Lindley, in Law Times Rep., LXXIII. 1 Feb., 645/2. The point is a very short one, and it appears to me, I confess, free from any real difficulty.

  27.  a. Exempt from, or not subject to, some particular jurisdiction or lordship. b. Possessed of certain exclusive rights or privileges. Used to designate franchises or liberties, as free chapel (see CHAPEL sb. 3 c); free chase = FRANK CHASE; free fishery (see FISHERY 4); free marriage = FRANK MARRIAGE; free warren (see WARREN). Free miner (local): see quot. 1883.

1297.  R. Glouc. (1724), 474. Other holi churche was issent, that mid riȝte was so fre.

1375.  Barbour, Bruce, I. 163.

c. 1483.  Caxton, Bk. Trav., 21 b. A cure of fre chapell.

1535.  Coverdale, Josh. xx. 2–3. Giue amonge you fre cities … y^t they may be fre amonge you from the avenger of bloude.

1599.  E. Sandys, Europæ Speculum (1632), 170. The Free-Cities, which are of very great number and strength, haue all saue some very few, enfreed them selues from the Pope eyther in whole or in theyr greater part.

1611.  Speed, Hist. Gt. Brit., IX. iii. § 11. Setting to sale the free-rights of the Church.

1641.  Termes de la Ley, 168. Free marriage.

1669.  Sc. Acts Chas. II., 4. Tenements lands and fishings holden in frie burgage.

1697.  Dampier, Voy., I. xi. 317. He was a free Merchant that told me this. For by that name the Dutch and English in the East-Indies, distinguish those Merchants who are not Servants to the Company.

1700.  Tyrrell, Hist. Eng., II. 1107. Provided their Feoffees and Free-Tenants have sufficient Pasture.

1703.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3950/4. The several Regalties, Free- Fisheries, etc. Ibid. (1723), No. 6194/7. Elizabeth Smith … Free-Dealer.

1726.  C. Kirkham (title), Two Letters … the First Shewing … the Rights and Privileges of Pourallees or Free-Hey.

1785.  J. Phillips, Treat. Inland Navig., p. xii. The defection of the Colonies, now the Free and United States.

1810.  Sporting Mag., XXXVI. April, 26/2. Whether they should thereby confirm the rights of free warren and free chase claimed by the plaintiff.

1843.  G. P. R. James, Forest Days, v. No free-forester shall ever be arrested by our people, or on our land.

1861.  M. Pattison, Ess. (1889), I. 44. The free towns of Lübeck, Bremen, and Hamburg, as heirs of the corporate estate of the Hanseatic League, became possessed of the Steelyard premises.

1883.  Gresley, Gloss. Coal Mining, Free Miner. A man born within the hundred of St. Briavels, in the county of Gloucester, who has worked a year and a day in a mine.

1884.  Law Times, 31 May, 78/2. A free miner made an application to the gaveller for a grant to him of one of the two gales.

  28.  Of real property: Held without obligation of rent or service, freehold.

c. 1290.  S. Eng. Leg., I. 52/185.

c. 1440.  York Myst., xxxii. 348. Armig. A place here beside lorde, wolde I wedde-sette. Pilat. What title has þou þer-to? is it þyne awne free? Armig. Lorde, fre be my fredome me fallis it.

1465.  Paston Lett., No. 522, II. 224. I have now yove ye other x. acres of fre londe aftir my discesse.

a. 1533.  Ld. Berners, Huon, lxxxi. 249. Your landes oughte to be rendred to you franke and fre.

1587.  in Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), I. 180. Ladyes Crofte Mr. Losse free.

1601.  Holland, Pliny, II. 492. She had conferred frankely vpon the people of Rome, a piece of medow ground lying vnder the Riuer Tybre, which was her owne Free-land.

1701.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3712/4. About 60 Acres of Meadow and Pasture Land, all Free Land.

  † b.  Of property: At one’s own disposal. Obs.

1808.  Forsyth, Beauties Scotl. (1808), V. 144. A prohibition existed in the old regulations, called Country Acts, against marriage, unless where the young couple could show they possessed L.40 Scots of free gear.

  29.  Invested with the rights or immunities of, admitted to the privileges of (a chartered company, corporation, city, or the like). Sometimes used simply, without of.

1496.  Act 12 Hen. VII., c. 6. Merchants and Adventurers dwelling and being free within the City of London.

1553.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford, 215. He was made fre in myne yere…. Am not I also a freeman?

1587.  Fleming, Contn. Holinshed, III. 1311/1. Citizen of London, and free of the clothworkers.

1610.  B. Jonson, Alch., I. iii. Free of the Grocers?

1651.  Rec. Carpenters’ Co., 4 Dec., in Jupp, Hist. Acc. Comp. Carpenters (1887), 160. Whereas the ffree Sawiers have indited a fforreine sawier at the sessions at the Old Bayly London, for working within the freedome of this Cittie of London.

1661.  Pepys, Diary, 3 May. It was in his and some others’ thoughts to have got me made free of the towne, but the Mayor, it seems, unwilling, and so they could not do it.

1688.  Lond. Gaz., No. 2317/1. The Company of Free Fishermen of Your River of Thames.

1690.  Locke, Govt., II. vi. § 59. Is a Man under the Law of England? what made him free of that Law? that is, to have the Liberty to dispose of his Actions and Possessions, according to his own Will, within the Permission of that Law?

1703.  Lond. Gaz., No. 3944/4. He is a Free-Burgess of Colchester.

1712.  Swift, Jrnl. to Stella, 18 Sept. It is necessary they should be made free here before they can be employed.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, II. xiii. In passing or fording a small river my horse fell, and made me free of the country, as they call it, that is to say, threw me in.

1766.  Entick, London, IV. 238–9. The shop-keepers are obliged to be free of the city.

1859.  C. Barker, Associative Principles, ii. 54. Watch with jealous care that persons not free of the craft were precluded from engaging in it.

  b.  Hence: Allowed the use or enjoyment of (a place, etc.).

1687.  Dryden, Hind & P., III. 1245.

1713.  Steele, Guardian, No. 53, 12 May, ¶ 2. Powel of the Bath is reconciled to me, and has made me free of his show.

1818.  Keats, Endymion, III. Poet. Wks. (1886), 139. And I was free of haunts umbrageous.

1840.  Dickens, Barn. Rudge, x. Barnaby’s as free of the house as any cat or dog about it.

  30.  Said of workmen who are not members of a trade union: also free labor = the labor of non-unionists.

1890.  Times, 17 Sept., 4/3. A free labour registration for the purpose of securing the services of men … for work as free men without reference to any other combination.

1891.  Spectator, LXVI. 17 Jan., 83/1. All strikes occasioned by the refusal of Union men to work with free-labourers are illegal.

  31.  Exempt from restrictions in regard to trade; allowed to trade in any market or with any commodities; open to all traders; also, not subject to tax, toll, or duty.

1631.  J. Weever, Ancient Funerall Monuments, 38. Gaue great immunities and priuiledges to the inhabitants, whom hee exempted from ordinarie Tributes, and instituted their Free-martes, or Markets, for al such as would dwell there, or negotiate with them.

1711.  Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 64. Nothing is so advantageous to it [trade] as a Free-Port.

1714.  Fr. Bk. of Rates, 2. Most of the Privileges of Cities, Towns, Persons, Free-fairs, and other Exemptions, were abolish’d at once.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, II. xiii. Having gotten a good acquaintance at Manilla, he got his ship made a free ship.

1753.  Scots Mag., March, 110/2. Free ships render the merchandize on board free.

1842.  Calhoun, Wks. (1874), IV. 105. The act … increased the list of free articles many-fold.

1858.  Simmonds, Dict. Trade, Free Public-house, one not belonging to a brewer; the landlord has therefore free liberty to brew his own beer, or purchase where he chooses.

1862.  Latham, Channel Isl., III. xvii. (ed. 2), 400. It became a free port, and throve through its freedom.

  32.  (In full free of cost, charge, or the like). Given or provided without payment, costless, gratuitous. Of persons: (Admitted, etc.) without payment.

1585.  T. Washington, trans. Nicholay’s Voy. Turkie, III. xviii. 104. Go roging alone through the towns and villages following the bathes, tauernes and assemblies, for to haue free shot and cheare.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., IV. 356.

1719.  De Foe, Crusoe, I. xvii. If the shipis, or may be recovered, you will carry me and my man to England, passage-free.

1830.  J. Wilson, Noctes Ambrosianæ, in Blackw. Mag., XXVIII. Aug., 400. Paid partly, I presume, in pounds, shillings, and pence; partly in victuals; and partly in free tickets.

1836.  Dickens, Sk. Boz, vi. (1850), 22/1. Subscriptions were entered into, books were bought, all the free-seat people provided therewith.

1852.  Macaulay, Jrnl., 15 Aug. I got a place among the free seats, and heard not a bad sermon on the word ‘Therefore.’

1856.  Hawthorne, Eng. Note-bks. (1883), II. 234. We now went to the Haymarket Theatre, where Douglas Jerrold is on the free list.

1856.  Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. i. 43. To every man, according to his degree, who chose to ask for it, there was free fare and free lodging.

1894.  Times (weekly ed.), 9 Feb., 113/2. An … applicant for a free pass over this company’s lines of railway.

  b.  Free school: ‘a school in which learning is given without pay’ (J.).

  It has been denied that this was the meaning of ‘free (grammar) school,’ L. libera schola grammaticalis, as the official designation of many schools founded under Edw. VI. The denial rests on the two assertions (both disputable): that the Eng. phrase is a translation of the Latin, not the reverse; and that liber could not mean ‘gratuitous’ in mediæval any more than in classical Latin. Many different interpretations of the adj. have been proposed: (1) exempt from ecclesiastical control; (2) exempted by licence from the operation of the statute of mortmain, and hence entitled to hold property (to a limited amount); (3) giving a liberal education; (4) ‘privileged’ or ‘authorized.’ We have failed, however, to find any example in which the interpretation ‘gratuitous’ is inadmissible (though the schools called ‘free’ were often gratuitous only to a select number or class of scholars); and there is abundant proof that this interpretation was already current before the time of Edw. VI.

[1488.  Will of Sir Edm. Shaw (Som. Ho.). I woll that the said connyng Preeste kepe a Grammer scole contynually in the said Town of Stopforde [Stockport] … and that he frely without any … salary asking … except only my salary … shall teach, etc.]

1494.  Fabyan, Chron., VI. clxxi. 165. He [King Alfred] ordeyned the firste grammer scole at Oxenforde, and other free scoles.

1500.  Deed Found. Lancaster Grammar Sch., in National Observer (1896), 3 Oct., 578. [The master shall be] a profound grammarian, keping a Fre Scole, teching … the childer unto the utmost profitt, nothing taking therefor.

1503.  Will of Sir John Percyvale (Macclesfield, 1877) 5. I woll that the said preest shall alway kepe … in the said Town of Maxfeld a Fre Grammar Scole.

c. 1512.  Ordinance Agnes Mellers (MS. c. 1590), in Nottingham Rec., III. 453. [She founds at Nottingham] a Free Schole of one maister and Usher…. [They are forbidden to] take any other gift … whereby the scollers or their friends should be charged but at the pleasure of the friends of the scholars, save the wages to be paid by the said Guardians.

[1518.  Stat. St. Paul’s Sch., in Lupton, Life Colet, 271. John Colet … in … [1512] bylded a Scole in the Estende of paulis Church for clijj to be taught fre in the same.]

1548.  Chantry Certif., No. 22, in A. F. Leach, Eng. Schools at Reform. (1897), 82. The chauntry of Blakebroke…. Founded by one Robert Gryndour, esquier, by licence obtained of Kinge Henry the sixt … to manteigne a discrete priest, beyng sufficiently lerned in the arte of Gramer, to Kepe a Gramer scoole half Free; that ys to seye, taking of scolers lerning gramer, 8d. the quarter, and of others lerning to rede, 4d. the quarter.

1583.  Stubbes, Anat. Abus., II. (1882), 19. Be there not Vniuersities, colledges, and free schooles, where youth may bee brought vp in learning Gratis without any charges to their parents?

1599.  Will of P. Blundell (founding Tiverton Grammar School), in Rept. Comm. Char., 1820, III. App. 136. My meaning is, yt shall be for ever a Free Schole and not a Schole of exaction.

1673.  Essex Papers (Camden), I. 116. There is also a free schoole setled att Carickfergus, which is maintained by the Bishop. Clergy, &c.

1699.  Phil. Trans., XXI. 441. A State-House, and a Free-School.

1727.  Stat. Bury Gramm. School (Bury, 1863). I have ordered my Free Schole of Bury to be free to all boys born in the parish … yet my intent is … not to debar [the masters] from that common priviledg in all Free Scholes of receiving presents, benevolences, gratuities from the scholars.

1759.  Goldsm., Bee, No. 6, § 1 ¶ 4. The manner in which our youth of London are at present educated is, some in free schools in the city, but the far greater number in boarding schools about town.

1837.  Ht. Martineau, Soc. Amer., III. 164. One needs but go from a charity-school in an English county to a free-school in Massachusetts, to see how different the bare acquisition of reading and writing is to children who, if they look forward at all, do it languidly, and into a life of mechanical labour merely, and to young citizens who are aware that they have their share of the work of self-government to achieve.

1838.  Dickens, O. Twist, vii. It’s a poor boy from the free-school. Ibid. (1842), Amer. Notes (1850), 113/1. Cincinnati is honourably famous for its free-schools, of which it has so many that no person’s child among its population can, by possibility, want the means of education.

  transf.  1589.  R. Harvey, Pl. Perc., 10. I see the vaine is vp in the forhead, and Martin shall haue as good as he brings, or else a free schoole of skolds shal be set vp for the nonce.

  † B.  sb. Obs.

  1.  The adj. used absol.

c. 1300.  Beket, 221. The crie was sone wide couth among thue and freo.

c. 1320.  Sir Tristr., 3153. Þo folwed bond and fre.

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 5514. Feiþful as here fader · to fre & to þewe.

  2.  A person of noble birth or breeding; a knight or lady.

  [In OS. poetry fri neut. (prob. orig. adj. with ellipsis of wîf) is used in the sense of ‘lady,’ or ME. BURO; the same use occurs once in OE. in a passage known to be translated from OS. (quot. a. 1000 below).]

a. 1000.  Cædmon’s Gen., 457 (Gr.). Freo fæȝroste.

c. 1320.  Sir Trisr., 3046.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., B. 929. ‘Þenne fare forth,’ quoth þat fre [an angel].

c. 1350.  Will. Palerne, 505. Whan þe fre was in þe forest · founde in his denne.

c. 1380.  Sir Ferumb., 3441. þanne saide Roland to þat fry: ‘Damesele, þow spekest ful cortesly.’

c. 1460.  Towneley Myst. (Surtees), 268.

a. 1549.  Murning Maidin, 14, in Laneham’s Let. (1871), Pref. 150.

  C.  adv. In a free manner, freely: used in the different senses of the adj. In educated use now only techn. or arch., and chiefly in contexts where it admits of being interpreted as adj.

1559.  Mirr. Mag., Worcester, ii.

1613.  Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. i. 82.

1681.  Dryden, Abs. & Achit., 200.

1703.  Moxon, Mech. Exerc., 321. So as the Plumb-line play free in the Groove.

1709.  Strype, Ann. Ref., I. ii. 61. This Subsidy was extremely free and readily granted without any special Labour or Desire of the Queen, but out of most necessary Consideration and by the Court of Parliament.

1776.  G. Semple, A Treatise on Building in Water, 105. The Thread, that is, the Middle of the Current of the River, runs the freest, and is the least retarded by those Obstacles.

1850.  Mrs. Browning, Rom. Page, xxxiv.

1885.  Law Times, LXXX. 12 Dec., 101/1. The machine could have been put out of gear by a handle which pushed the strap fron the pulley working the machine on to an adjoining pulley which ran free.

  b.  Without cost or payment. Often with gratis added. Scot free: see SCOT.

1568.  V. Skinner, trans. Montanus’ Inquisit., 35 b. Escape scotte free.

1682.  in Picton, L’pool Munic. Rec. (1883), I. 252. Hee was admitted free gratis. Ibid. (1774), (1886), II. 195. Admitted to the freedom free gratis.

Mod.  The gallery will be open free on Saturdays.

  c.  Naut. (To sail, go, etc.) free: i.e., with bowlines slackened and sheets eased; farther from the wind than when close-hauled.

1812.  Examiner, 12 Oct., 649/2. Both keeping up a heavy fire and steering free.

1839.  Marryat, Phantom Ship, I. xii. 289. We were going about four knots and a half free, and yet we could not escape from this mist.

1883.  J. D. Jerrold Kelly, The Modern Yacht, in Harper’s Mag., LXVII. Aug., 447/2. What, then, is wanted is a boat … with ability to fetch to windward and to run free.

  D.  Comb.

  1.  a. with ppl. adjs. where free is either adverbial or enters into parasynthetic combinations, as † free-bestowed, -bred, -footed, † -franchised, -garmented, † -miened, -minded, (-mindedness), -mouthed, -moving, -spirited, -swimming, -tongued, -working.

1583.  Golding, Calvin on Deut. xiii. 75. Through his owne *freebestowed goodenesse.

1599.  Marston, Sco. Villanie, II. vi. 201.

1602.  Shaks., Ham., III. iii. 26.

1681.  Cotton, The Wonders of the Peake (ed. 4), 28. In these *free-franchis’d, subterranean Caves.

1848.  Hare, Guesses, Ser. II. (1859), 341. The sayings of the *free-garmented folks in Julius Cesar could not have come from the close-buttoned generation in Othello.

1647.  R. Stapylton, Juvenal, 215.

1597.  Bacon, Ess., Regiment of Health (Arb.), 58. To be *free minded, and chearefully disposed at howers of meate and of sleepe and of exercise, is the best precept of long lasting.

1834.  T. Moore, Mem. (1856), VII. 41. ‘The highest gentlemen,’ Hughes said, are to be found in the Slave States, and seemed to argue as if they were more high and free-minded from having slaves to trample upon.

1579.  Knewstub, Confutation, 68 b. Out of the *free mindednes of their heat [? heart].

1647.  H. More, Song of Soul, II. iii. III. lviii.

1862.  Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), VII. lxii. 403. Agricola, who abstained from provoking his own fate by a vain pretence of *free-mouthed patriotism.

1835–6.  R. B. Todd, The Cyclopædia of Anatomy and Physiology, I. 688/2. The *free-moving young have very well developed eyes.

1677.  Gale, Crt. Gentiles, IV. 429. Princes, who ought to be *free-spirited, generose, liberal.

1735.  Berkeley, Def. Free-thinking in Math., § 8. Much less can you hope that an illustrious seminary of learned men which hath produced so many free-spirited inquiries after truth, will at once enter into your passions and degenerate into a nest of bigots.

1894.  Pop. Sci. Monthly, XLV. June, 272. The subject of the investigation is a pelagic or *free-swimming Ascidian, confined to the high seas, and exceptional even in a group whose larvæ are plainly allied to vertebrates.

1599.  Massinger, etc., Old Law, IV. ii.

1877.  Dowden, Shaks. Prim., vi. 141. How remote from the free-tongued girls of Cleopatra.

a. 1619.  Fotherby, Atheom., I. xiii. § 1 (1622), 135. Some of them both wittingly, and willingly, by a free-working will.

1793.  Smeaton, Edystone L., § 98. I became convinced of the necessity of making use of Portland, or some other free working stone for the inside work.

1892.  J. C. Blomfield, Hist. Heyford, 3. Light or free-working land may be ploughed more easily than that which is stiff and heavy.

  b.  in derivative combinations based upon some recognized phrase in which the adjective is employed, as free-agency, -citizenship, -pressism, etc. (after free agent, free citizen, free press, etc.).

1786.  Burke, W. Hastings, Wks. 1842, II. 205. The restoration of the Mogul in some degree to the dignity of his situation, and to his *free-agency in the conduct of his affairs.

1860.  Pusey, The Minor Prophets, 324. He so wills to be freely loved by His intelligent creatures whom He formed for His love, that He does not force our free-agency.

1849.  Grote, Greece, II. lxix. (1862), VI. 216. To Xerxes, the conception of *free-citizenship—and of orderly self-sufficing courage, planted by a public discipline patriotic as well as equalising—was not merely repugnant, but incomprehensible.

1856.  Tait’s Mag., XXIII. Nov., 698/1. Our *free pressism is one of our peculiarities.

  c.  in secondary combination with a verbal or agent noun (where free seems partly adverbial, qualifying the action understood), as free-acting, -handler, -handling, -seeker, -speaker, -speaking, -writer, -writing. So FREE-LIVER, -THINKER, etc.

1738–41.  Warburton, Div. Legat., App. 41. ’Tis the punishment of *free-acting to fear where no fear is.

1862.  F. Hall, Hindu Philos. Syst., 157, note. The torture to which Vijnána habitually—and especially in the Sánkhyasára—subjects the whole compass of the Vedánta nomenclature, reminds one forcibly of the sanctimonious vocabulary of *free-handlers and secularists among our contemporaries in Christian countries.

1875.  E. White, Life in Christ, II. xii. (1878), 144. If you will but nullify by criticism and *free-handling the truth on Atonement, you may retain all the rest of Christianity, and pass for liberal Christians, without hindrance from the chief enemy of Christ.

1693.  Luttrell, Brief Rel. (1857), III. 56. A new sect is started up here called the *Freeseekers; one of the chiefe promoters is an empirick in physick, and pretend to greater revelations then the quakers.

1716.  Addison, Drummer, I. 10. Tins. I’m a Free-thinker, Child. Ab. I am sure you are a *Free-speaker!

1660.  Trial Regic., 49. Let there be *free-speaking by the Prisoner, and Counsel.

1711.  Shaftesb., Charac. (1737), I. 65. In the Case of many Zealots, who have taken upon ’em to answer our modern *Free-Writers.

1732.  Berkeley, Alciphr., II. § 6. In this most wise and happy age of Free-thinking, Free-speaking, *Free-writing, and Free-acting.

  2.  In spec. phrases, etc.: † free alms = frank almoign (see ALMOIGN); free-chant Mus. (see quot.); free companion (see quot. and cf. FREE LANCE); so free company; † free fish (see quot.); free grace, the unmerited favor of God (whence † free gracian); † free holly (see quot.); free love, the doctrine of the right of free choice in sexual relations without the restraint of marriage or other legal obligation; whence free-lover, -loving, -lovism, etc.; free-milling a. Mining (of ores) easily reducible; free part Mus. (see quot.); free-stock (see quot. 1763); free-stuff Building (see quot.); † free suitor, one of the tenants entitled to attend a manorial court; † free ward, ? = L. libera custodia, detention not involving close or ignominious restraint (hence free-warder); † free-work, ? decorative mason-work.

1503–4.  Act 19 Hen. VII., c. 29, Preamb. To hold … of your Highnesse and of your heyres in *free & perpetuall Almes.

1628.  Coke, On Litt., 97 a. Free almes, (which was free from any limitation of certaintie).

1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, *Free chant is a form of recitative music for the Psalms and Canticles, in which a phrase, consisting of two chords only, is applied to each hemistich of the words.

1820.  Scott, Ivanhoe, viii. A knight who rode near him, the leader of a band of *Free Companions, or Condottieri; that is, of mercenaries belonging to no particular nation, but attached for the time to any prince by whom they were paid.

1872.  Ruskin, Fors Clav., II. xv. 11. Scott uses this very image to describe the look of chain-mail of a soldier in one of these *free companies.

1602.  Carew, Cornwall, 31 a. After Shel-fish succeedeth the *free-fish, so termed, because he wanteth this shelly bulwarke.

1651.  C. Cartwright, Certamen Religiosum, I. 108. How many, O Lord, doe with Pelagius fight for Free-will against Thy *Free-grace?

1871.  Carlyle, in Mrs. Carlyle’s Lett., I. 380. [She] was filled with the consciousness of free grace.

1647.  Saltmarsh, Sparkles of Glory (1847), 141. The *Free-Gracian. They that have discovered up into free-grace or the mystery of salvation [etc.].

1610.  Guillim, Heraldry, III. vii. 108. There is a kinde of Holly that is void of these Prickles and of gentler nature, and therefore called *Free-holly, which in my opinion is the best Holly.

1859.  J. G. Holland, Gold-foil, vi. 96. The *free-love doctrines and free-love practices of the day, the multiplication of cases of divorce, and the shameful infidelities that prevail, are all indications of the sensual tendencies of the age.

1872.  Tennyson, Last Tournament, 275. ‘Free love—free field—we love but while we may.’

1872.  F. Hall, Recent Exempl. False Phil., 88–9. There being, then, no married men, and, otherwise than in a sort of Pickwickian sense, no married women either, *free-lovers may, with good reason, look up.

1879.  Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, xviii. 318. The connection between the patriotic affection and every other affection which lifts us above emigrating rats and *free-loving baboons.

1864.  Realm, 17 Feb., 3. Advocates of *free-lovism, who believe the great evil of the world to be the indissolubility of marriage.

1895.  City Review, 3 July, 3/2. *Free milling ores are usually obtained from the auriferous quartz lying near the surface.

1876.  Stainer & Barrett, Dict. Mus. Terms, *Free parts. Additional parts to a canon or fugue, having independent melodies, in order to strengthen or complete the harmony.

1719.  London & Wise, The Complete Gard’ner, IV. 52. It should be Grafted on a Quince-stock, because on a *Free-Stock the Fruit grows spotted, small, and crumpled.

1763.  J. Wheeler, Botan. & Gard. Dict., s.v. Pyrus.… All the sorts propagated in gardens, are produced by budding, or grafting them upon stocks of their own kind; which are commonly called free-stocks.

1823.  P. Nicholson, Pract. Build., 223. *Free Stuff.—That timber or stuff which is quite clean, or without knots, and works easily, without tearing.

1620.  Wilkinson, Courts Leet & Baron, 108. Then call the *free suitors and dozonors one after another.

c. 1640.  J. Smyth, Lives Berkeleys (1883), I. 195. Which in the Court of this Lord in Radclivestreet shee denyed; Whereupon the freesuters there gave iudgment vpon his life.

1637.  Rutherford, Lett., 23 Sept. (1891), 523. My spirit also is in *free ward. Ibid., 17 Sept. (1891), 516. Jesus hath a back-bond of all our temptations, that the free-warders shall come out by law and justice, in respect of the infinite and great sum that the Redeemer paid.

a. 1718.  Penn, Tracts, Wks. 1726, I. 726. An Hundred other unprofitable Pieces of State, such as Massy Plate, Rich China, Costly Pictures, Sculpture, *Free-work, Inlayings, and Painted Windows, of no Use in the Earth, only for Show and Sight.