adjectival phr., (adv.) and sb.
A. adjectival phr. Unconstrained, natural, unaffected; also, careless, slipshod.
1699. M. Lister, Journ. Paris, 41. He has Painted his own Picture, in a very free and easie posture.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 119, 17 July, ¶ 3. The Fashionable World is grown free and easie; our Manners, sit more loose upon us: Nothing is so modish as an agreeable Negligence.
1756. R. Baron, Pref. Milton’s Eikon. In the Book before us his style is for the most part free and easy, and it abounds both in eloquence and wit and argument.
1861. Hughes, Tom Brown at Oxf., viii. (1889), 72. I don’t think he has ever got back since that day to his original free-and-easy swagger.
1864. Newman, Apologia, 134. I had a lounging, free-and-easy way of carrying things on.
b. quasi-adv.
1772. Hutton, Bridges, 83. Arches … affording a safe passage for men and carriages over large waters, which with their navigation pass free and easy under them at the same time, is a sight truly surprizing and affecting indeed.
Hence Free-and-easiness.
1868. Holme Lee, B. Godfrey, II. xxxiv. 134–5. Belle and Blanche, who were well-bred free-and-easiness personified, did not understand it, and thought her proud and dull.
B. sb. A convivial gathering for singing, at which one may drink, smoke, etc.
1823. in ‘Jon Bee’ [J. Badcock], Slang.
1832. Examiner, 460/1. The prisoner was a frequenter of Free and Easys.
1878. Besant & Rice, Celia’s Arb., xxxvi. (1887), 264. Most likely we might find him at the ‘Blue Anchor’ in the evening, where there was a nightly free-and-easy for soldiers and sailors.
