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What is "free-wheeling"

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
free-wheeling

also freewheeling, 1903, from free wheel (1899, see free (adj.) + wheel (n.)); a bicycle wheel that turns even when not being pedaled, later from the name of a kind of automobile drive system that allowed cars to coast without being slowed by the engine. Figurative sense is from 1911.

Usage examples of "free-wheeling".

The road was on a hill and the boy was going down the slope, and as he flashed by he started backpedalling very quickly so that the free-wheeling mechanism of his bike made a loud whirring sound.

The transition from a fiscal conservative to a free-wheeling candidate was awkward, but the money had to be spent.