Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Free \Free\ (fr[=e]), a. [Compar. Freer (-[~e]r); superl. Freest (-[e^]st).] [OE. fre, freo, AS. fre['o], fr[=i]; akin to D. vrij, OS. & OHG. fr[=i], G. frei, Icel. fr[=i], Sw. & Dan. fri, Goth. freis, and also to Skr. prija beloved, dear, fr. pr[=i] to love, Goth. frij[=o]n. Cf. Affray, Belfry, Friday, Friend, Frith inclosure.]
-
Exempt from subjection to the will of others; not under restraint, control, or compulsion; able to follow one's own impulses, desires, or inclinations; determining one's own course of action; not dependent; at liberty.
That which has the power, or not the power, to operate, is that alone which is or is not free.
--Locke. Not under an arbitrary or despotic government; subject only to fixed laws regularly and fairly administered, and defended by them from encroachments upon natural or acquired rights; enjoying political liberty.
Liberated, by arriving at a certain age, from the control of parents, guardian, or master.
-
Not confined or imprisoned; released from arrest; liberated; at liberty to go.
Set an unhappy prisoner free.
--Prior. -
Not subjected to the laws of physical necessity; capable of voluntary activity; endowed with moral liberty; -- said of the will.
Not free, what proof could they have given sincere Of true allegiance, constant faith, or love.
--Milton. -
Clear of offense or crime; guiltless; innocent.
My hands are guilty, but my heart is free.
--Dryden. -
Unconstrained by timidity or distrust; unreserved; ingenuous; frank; familiar; communicative.
He was free only with a few.
--Milward. -
Unrestrained; immoderate; lavish; licentious; -- used in a bad sense.
The critics have been very free in their censures.
--Felton.A man may live a free life as to wine or women.
--Shelley. Not close or parsimonious; liberal; open-handed; lavish; as, free with his money.
-
Exempt; clear; released; liberated; not encumbered or troubled with; as, free from pain; free from a burden; -- followed by from, or, rarely, by of.
Princes declaring themselves free from the obligations of their treaties.
--Bp. Burnet. Characteristic of one acting without restraint; charming; easy.
Ready; eager; acting without spurring or whipping; spirited; as, a free horse.
-
Invested with a particular freedom or franchise; enjoying certain immunities or privileges; admitted to special rights; -- followed by of.
He therefore makes all birds, of every sect, Free of his farm.
--Dryden. -
Thrown open, or made accessible, to all; to be enjoyed without limitations; unrestricted; not obstructed, engrossed, or appropriated; open; -- said of a thing to be possessed or enjoyed; as, a free school.
Why, sir, I pray, are not the streets as free For me as for you?
--Shak. Not gained by importunity or purchase; gratuitous; spontaneous; as, free admission; a free gift.
Not arbitrary or despotic; assuring liberty; defending individual rights against encroachment by any person or class; instituted by a free people; -- said of a government, institutions, etc.
(O. Eng. Law) Certain or honorable; the opposite of base; as, free service; free socage.
--Burrill.(Law) Privileged or individual; the opposite of common; as, a free fishery; a free warren.
--Burrill.-
Not united or combined with anything else; separated; dissevered; unattached; at liberty to escape; as, free carbonic acid gas; free cells. Free agency, the capacity or power of choosing or acting freely, or without necessity or constraint upon the will. Free bench (Eng. Law), a widow's right in the copyhold lands of her husband, corresponding to dower in freeholds. Free board (Naut.), a vessel's side between water line and gunwale. Free bond (Chem.), an unsaturated or unemployed unit, or bond, of affinity or valence, of an atom or radical. Free-borough men (O.Eng. Law). See Friborg. Free chapel (Eccles.), a chapel not subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary, having been founded by the king or by a subject specially authorized. [Eng.] --Bouvier. Free charge (Elec.), a charge of electricity in the free or statical condition; free electricity. Free church.
A church whose sittings are for all and without charge.
-
An ecclesiastical body that left the Church of Scotland, in 1843, to be free from control by the government in spiritual matters. Free city, or Free town, a city or town independent in its government and franchises, as formerly those of the Hanseatic league. Free cost, freedom from charges or expenses. --South. Free and easy, unconventional; unrestrained; regardless of formalities. [Colloq.] ``Sal and her free and easy ways.'' --W. Black. Free goods, goods admitted into a country free of duty. Free labor, the labor of freemen, as distinguished from that of slaves. Free port. (Com.)
A port where goods may be received and shipped free of custom duty.
-
A port where goods of all kinds are received from ships of all nations at equal rates of duty. Free public house, in England, a tavern not belonging to a brewer, so that the landlord is free to brew his own beer or purchase where he chooses. --Simmonds. Free school.
A school to which pupils are admitted without discrimination and on an equal footing.
-
A school supported by general taxation, by endowmants, etc., where pupils pay nothing for tuition; a public school.
Free services (O.Eng. Law), such feudal services as were not unbecoming the character of a soldier or a freemen to perform; as, to serve under his lord in war, to pay a sum of money, etc.
--Burrill.Free ships, ships of neutral nations, which in time of war are free from capture even though carrying enemy's goods.
Free socage (O.Eng. Law), a feudal tenure held by certain services which, though honorable, were not military.
--Abbott.Free States, those of the United States before the Civil War, in which slavery had ceased to exist, or had never existed.
Free stuff (Carp.), timber free from knots; clear stuff.
Free thought, that which is thought independently of the authority of others.
Free trade, commerce unrestricted by duties or tariff regulations.
Free trader, one who believes in free trade.
To make free with, to take liberties with; to help one's self to. [Colloq.]
To sail free (Naut.), to sail with the yards not braced in as sharp as when sailing closehauled, or close to the wind.
Wiktionary
a. (context idiomatic sometimes hyphenated English) casual, informal, relaxed, unrestrained. alt. (context idiomatic sometimes hyphenated English) casual, informal, relaxed, unrestrained.
Wikipedia
"Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)" is a song co-written and recorded by American country music artist Dierks Bentley. It was released in June 2007 as the third single from his album Long Trip Alone. It has become his fifth Number One single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. The song was made available as downloadable content for the game Rock Band on December 16, 2008. The song was written by Bentley, Brett Beavers, Rob Harrington and Rod Janzen.
Free and Easy is a 1941 film directed by George Sidney, and starring Robert Cummings and Ruth Hussey. The film is a remake of MGM's But the Flesh Is Weak (1932) with Robert Montgomery and C. Aubrey Smith as the son-and-father team.
Free and Easy is a 1930 American Pre-Code comedy film starring Buster Keaton. It was Keaton's first starring talkie vehicle.
Free and Easy may refer to:
- Free and Easy (1930 film), starring Buster Keaton
- Free and Easy (1941 film), starring Robert Cummings
- " Free and Easy (Down the Road I Go)", a 2006 song co-written and recorded by Dierks Bentley
- "Free & Easy" (Ayumi Hamasaki song), a 2002 song co-written and performed by Ayumi Hamasaki
- Free and Easy (album), a 1974 album by Helen Reddy
Free and Easy is an album by Australian-American pop singer Helen Reddy that was released in the fall of 1974 by Capitol Records and included rare forays into rock ("Raised on Rock") and vaudeville ("Showbiz"). The album debuted on Billboard's Top LP's & Tapes chart in the issue dated November 2, 1974, and reached number eight during its 28 weeks there. The following month, on December 18, the Recording Industry Association of America awarded the album with Gold certification for sales of 500,000 copies in the United States. In the UK it peaked at number 17, and in Canada's RPM magazine it got as high as number nine on its list of the top LPs in the issue dated January 11, 1975. On January 27, 2004, it was released for the first time on compact disc as one of two albums on one CD, the other album being her other 1974 release, Love Song for Jeffrey.
__TOC__
Usage examples of "free and easy".
Count Rostof saw with dissatisfaction that the large majority of those present consisted of men and women noted for their free and easy behavior.
In manner he was slow and, as it were, nonchalant, and at the same time studiously free and easy.
I was so frightened I almost ran back in again, but at once he took my arm, laughed in a free and easy way that was completely new, and talked and talked.
It seemed to be much harder, those long weeks of male society on the training planet and on the ships and in schools, for the Empire trainees, because, as he'd heard in their conversations, things were much different on Empire worlds, with sex taken free and easy from an early age.
If left alone in the room, each of you would probably involuntarily rearrange himself, and make his attitude more 'free and easy.
Yet it was clear to both the Japanese and to us that the free and easy ways of the past would have to go.
You'll recall you instructed him to be free and easy with information bearing on combat operations in the nebula?
We need to insure that it's not a free and easy passage to the Hellgate.
As she followed him up the slope, she couldn't help noticing his free and easy walk.
He was first ushered into the hall of the modern mansion which was thronged with servants, who bowed reverently as he appeared, and everything looked so cheerful and comfortable, and so like the abode of a country squire-all the doors were wide open-there were so many dogs about-and such an air of free and easy hospitality pervaded the place-that he would fain have taken up his quarters there, had it been judged prudent.
A Malwa officer, had there been one present to notice, would have been outraged at the free and easy fraternization between captives and captors.