Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Liberty \Lib"er*ty\ (l[i^]b"[~e]r*t[y^]), n.; pl. Liberties (-t[i^]z). [OE. liberte, F. libert['e], fr. L. libertas, fr. liber free. See Liberal.]
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The state of a free person; exemption from subjection to the will of another claiming ownership of the person or services; freedom; -- opposed to slavery, serfdom, bondage, or subjection.
But ye . . . caused every man his servant, and every man his handmaid whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return, and brought them into subjection.
--Jer. xxxiv. 16.Delivered fro the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God.
--Bible, 1551. Rom. viii. 21. -
Freedom from imprisonment, bonds, or other restraint upon locomotion.
Being pent from liberty, as I am now.
--Shak. A privilege conferred by a superior power; permission granted; leave; as, liberty given to a child to play, or to a witness to leave a court, and the like.
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Privilege; exemption; franchise; immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant; as, the liberties of the commercial cities of Europe.
His majesty gave not an entire county to any; much less did he grant . . . any extraordinary liberties.
--Sir J. Davies. -
The place within which certain immunities are enjoyed, or jurisdiction is exercised. [Eng.]
Brought forth into some public or open place within the liberty of the city, and there . . . burned.
--Fuller. A certain amount of freedom; permission to go freely within certain limits; also, the place or limits within which such freedom is exercised; as, the liberties of a prison.
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A privilege or license in violation of the laws of etiquette or propriety; as, to permit, or take, a liberty.
He was repeatedly provoked into striking those who had taken liberties with him.
--Macaulay. -
The power of choice; freedom from necessity; freedom from compulsion or constraint in willing.
The idea of liberty is the idea of a power in any agent to do or forbear any particular action, according to the determination or thought of the mind, whereby either of them is preferred to the other.
--Locke.This liberty of judgment did not of necessity lead to lawlessness.
--J. A. Symonds. (Manege) A curve or arch in a bit to afford room for the tongue of the horse.
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(Naut.) Leave of absence; permission to go on shore. At liberty.
Unconfined; free.
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At leisure. Civil liberty, exemption from arbitrary interference with person, opinion, or property, on the part of the government under which one lives, and freedom to take part in modifying that government or its laws. Liberty bell. See under Bell. Liberty cap.
The Roman pileus which was given to a slave at his manumission.
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A limp, close-fitting cap with which the head of representations of the goddess of liberty is often decked. It is sometimes represented on a spear or a liberty pole.
Liberty of the press, freedom to print and publish without official supervision.
Liberty party, the party, in the American Revolution, which favored independence of England; in more recent usage, a party which favored the emancipation of the slaves.
Liberty pole, a tall flagstaff planted in the ground, often surmounted by a liberty cap. [U. S.]
Moral liberty, that liberty of choice which is essential to moral responsibility.
Religious liberty, freedom of religious opinion and worship.
Syn: Leave; permission; license.
Usage: Liberty, Freedom. These words, though often interchanged, are distinct in some of their applications. Liberty has reference to previous restraint; freedom, to the simple, unrepressed exercise of our powers. A slave is set at liberty; his master had always been in a state of freedom. A prisoner under trial may ask liberty (exemption from restraint) to speak his sentiments with freedom (the spontaneous and bold utterance of his feelings). The liberty of the press is our great security for freedom of thought.
WordNet
n. one's freedom to exercise one's rights as guaranteed under the laws of the country [syn: political liberty]
fundamental individual right protected by law and expressed as immunity from unwarranted governmental interference
Wikipedia
Civil Liberty claims to be a civil rights organisation autonomous of any political party in the United Kingdom. It has been alleged to be a front organisation for the British National Party (BNP), set up to raise money for the party from far-right sympathisers in the United States. It should not be confused with the pressure group Liberty (previously the National Council for Civil Liberties).
Usage examples of "civil liberty".
The cause of civil liberty and civil government gains as little as that of religion by this confusion of duties.
Motley, of the struggles of the Dutch Republic to keep religious and civil liberty from disappearing from this earth.
The ruin of civil liberty had silenced the demagogues of Athens, and the tribunes of Rome.
He wished to deceive the people by an image of civil liberty, and the armies by an image of civil government.
The British ruling class believe in democracy and civil liberty in a narrow and partly hypocritical way.
The custom afterwards succeeded of granting letters of enfranchisement, and was soon followed by so perfect a harmony between the civil liberty of the people, the privileges of the nobility and clergy, and the prince's prerogative, that I really think there never was in the world a government so well tempered as that of each part of Europe, so long as it lasted.
So-called civil liberty groups continue to attack each of these freedoms in the name of freedom.
The political liberty of those states adds to the value of civil liberty.
I saw the tail end of it only, but it seemed to be more or less a standard instruction film, reviewing the history of the United States, discussing civil liberty, explaining the duties of a citizen in a free democracy-not the sort of thing ever seen in the Prophet’.
I saw the tail end of it only, but it seemed to be more or less a standard instruction film, reviewing the history of the United States, discussing civil liberty, explaining the duties of a citizen in a free democracy-not the sort of thing ever seen in the Prophet's schools but making use of the same techniques which had long been used in every school in the country.