King James Bible Dictionary

FREE, noun [Heb. See Frank.]

1. Being at liberty; not being under necessity or restraint, physical or moral; a word of general application to the body, the will or mind, and to corporations.

2. In government, not enslaved; not in a state of vassalage or dependence; subject only to fixed laws, made by consent, and to a regular administration of such laws; not subject to the arbitrary will of a sovereign or lord; as a free state, nation or people.

3. Instituted by a free people, or by consent or choice of those who are to be subjects, and securing private rights and privileges by fixed laws and principles; not arbitrary or despotic; as a free constitution or government.

There can be no free government without a democratical branch in the constitution.

4. Not imprisoned, confined or under arrest; as, the prisoner is set free

5. Unconstrained; unrestrained; not under compulsion or control. A man is free to pursue his own choice; he enjoys free will.

6. Permitted; allowed; open; not appropriated; as, places of honor and confidence are free to all; we seldom hear of a commerce perfectly free

7. Not obstructed; as, the water has a free passage or channel; the house is open to a free current of air.

8. Licentious; unrestrained. The reviewer is very free in his censures.

9. Open; candid; frank; ingenuous; unreserved; as, we had a free conversation together.

Will you be free and candid to your friend?

10. Liberal in expenses; not parsimonious; as a free purse; a man is free to give to all useful institutions.

11. Gratuitous; not gained by importunity or purchase. He made him a free offer of his services. It is a free gift. The salvation of men is of free grace.

12. Clear of crime or offense; guiltless; innocent.

My hands are guilty, but my heart is free

13. Not having feeling or suffering; clear; exempt; with from; as free from pain or disease; free from remorse.

14. Not encumbered with; as free from a burden.

15. Open to all, without restriction or without expense; as a free school.

16. Invested with franchises; enjoying certain immunities; with of; as a man free of the city of London.

17. Possessing without vassalage or slavish conditions; as free of his farm.

18. Liberated from the government or control of parents, or of a guardian or master. A son or an apprentice, when of age, is free

19. Ready; eager; not dull; acting without spurring or shipping; as a free horse.

20. Genteel; charming. [Not in use.]

FREE, verb transitive

1. To remove from a thing any encumbrance or obstruction; to disengage from; to rid; to strip; to clear; as, to free the body from clothes; to free the feet from fetters; to free a channel from sand.

2. To set at liberty; to rescue or release from slavery, captivity or confinement; to loose. The prisoner is freed from arrest.

3. To disentangle; to disengage.

4. To exempt.

He that is dead is freed from sin. Romans 6:18.

5. To manumit; to release from bondage; as, to free a slave.

6. To clear from water, as a ship by pumping.

7. To release from obligation or duty.

To free from or free of, is to rid of, by removing, in any manner.

FREEBENCH', noun A widow's dower in a copyhold.

FREE'BOOTER, noun [ See Booty.]

One who wanders about for plunder; a robber; a pillager; a plunderer.

FREE'BOOTING, noun Robbery; plunder; a pillaging.

FREE'BORN, adjective Born free; not in vassalage; inheriting liberty.

FREECHAP'EL, noun In England, a chapel founded by the king and not subject to the jurisdiction of the ordinary. The kind may also grant license to a subject to found such a chapel.

Free city, in Germany, an imperial city, not subject to a prince, but governed by its own magistrates.

FREE'COST, noun Without expense; freedom from charges.

FREED, participle passive Set at liberty; loosed; delivered from restraint; cleared of hinderance or obstruction.

FREEDEN'IZEN, noun A citizen.

FREE'DMAN, noun A man who has been a slave and is manumitted.

Synagogue of
Acts 6:9
Emancipation

The law of Moses pointed out the cases in which the servants of the Hebrews were to receive their freedom (Exodus 21:2-4, 7, 8; Leviticus 25:39-42, 47-55; Deuteronomy 15:12-18). Under the Roman law the "freeman" (ingenuus) was one born free; the "freedman" (libertinus) was a manumitted slave, and had not equal rights with the freeman (Acts 22:28; comp. Acts 16:37-39; 21:39; 22:25; 25:11, 12).

From servitude.
Emancipation; Jubilee

FREE'DOM, noun

1. A state of exemption from the power or control of another; liberty; exemption from slavery, servitude or confinement. freedom is personal, civil, political, and religious. [See Liberty.]

2. Particular privileges; franchise; immunity; as the freedom of a city.

3. Power of enjoying franchises.

4. Exemption from fate, necessity, or any constraint in consequence of predetermination or otherwise; as the freedom of the will.

5. Any exemption from constraint or control.

6. Ease or facility of doing any thing. He speaks or acts with freedom

7. Frankness; boldness. He addressed his audience with freedom

8. License; improper familiarity; violation of the rules of decorum; with a plural. Beware of what are called innocent freedoms.

FREEFISH'ERY, noun A royal franchise or exclusive privilege of fishing in a public river.

FREE'FOOTED, adjective Not restrained in marching. [Not used.]

FREEHEARTED, adjective [See Heart.]

1. Open; frank; unreserved.

2. Liberal; charitable; generous.

FREEHEARTEDNESS, noun Frankness; openness of heart; liberality.

FREE'HOLD, adjective That land or tenement which is held in fee-simple, fee-tail, or for term of life. It is of two kinds; in deed, and in law. The first is the real possession of such land or tenement; the last is the right a man has to such land or tenement, before his entry or seizure.

Freehold is also extended to such offices as a man holds in fee or for life. It is also taken in opposition to villenage.

In the United States, a freehold is an estate which a man holds in his own right, subject to no superior nor to conditions.

FREE'HOLDER, noun One who owns an estate in fee-simple, fee-tail or for life; the possessor of a freehold. Every juryman must be a freeholder

FREE'ING, participle present tense Delivering from restraint; releasing from confinement; removing incumbrances or hinderances from any thing; clearing.

FREE'LY, adverb

1. At liberty; without vassalage, slavery or dependence.

2. Without restraint, constraint or compulsion; voluntarily. To render a moral agent accountable, he must act freely

3. Plentifully; in abundance; as, to eat or drink freely

4. Without scruple or reserve; as, to censure freely

5. Without impediment or hinderance.

Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat. Genesis 2:16.

6. Without necessity, or compulsion from divine predetermination.

Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell.

7. Without obstruction; largely; copiously. The patient bled freely

8. Spontaneously; without constraint or persuasion.

9. Liberally; generously; as, to give freely to the poor.

10. Gratuitously; of free will or grace, with out purchase or consideration.

Freely ye have received, freely give. Matthew 10:8.

FREE'MAN, noun [free and man.]

1. One who enjoys liberty, or who is not subject to the will of another; one not a slave or vassal.

2. One who enjoys or is entitled to a franchise or peculiar privilege; as the freemen of a city or state.

FREE'MASON, noun One of the fraternity of masons.

FREE'MINDED, adjective Not perplexed; free from care.

FREE'NESS, noun

1. The state or quality of being free, unconstrained, unconfined, unincumbered, or unobstructed.

2. Openness; unreservedness; frankness; ingenuousness; candor; as the freeness of a confession.

3. Liberality; generosity; as freeness in giving.

4. Gratuitousness; as the freeness of divine grace.

FREE'SCHOOL, noun

1. A school supported by funds, etc., in which pupils are taught without paying for tuition.

2. A school open to admit pupils without restriction.

FREE'SPOKEN, adjective Accustomed to speak without reserve.

FREE'STONE, noun Any species of stone composed of sand or grit, so called because it is easily cut or wrought.

FREE'THINKER, noun A softer name for a deist; an unbeliever; one who discards revelation.

FREE'THINKING, noun Unbelief.

FREE'TONGUED, adjective Speaking without reserve.

FREEWAR'REN, noun A royal franchise or exclusive right of killing beasts and fowls of warren within certain limits.

FREEWILL', noun

1. The power of directing our own actions without restraint by necessity or fate.

2. Voluntariness; spontaneousness.

See Blessing, Contingent upon Obedience
Blessing, Contingent upon Obedience

A spontaneous gift (Exodus 35:29), a voluntary sacrifice (Leviticus 22:23; Ezra 3:5), as opposed to one in consequence of a vow, or in expiation of some offence.

General references
Leviticus 22:21; Leviticus 22:23; Leviticus 23:38; Numbers 29:39; Deuteronomy 12:6; Deuteronomy 12:17; 2 Chronicles 31:14; Ezra 3:5; Ezra 7:16; Ezra 8:28; Psalms 119:108
Beneficence; Gifts from God; Giving; Liberality; Offerings

FREE'WOMAN, noun A woman not a slave.

FREEZE, verb intransitive preterit tense froze; participle passive frozen, or froze. [Gr. had for its radical letters.]

1. To be congealed by cold; to be changed from a liquid to a solid state by the abstraction of heat; to be hardened into ice or a like solid body. Water freezes at the temperature of 32 degrees above zero by Fahrenheit's thermometer. Mercury freezes at 40 degrees below zero.

2. To be of that degree of cold at which water congeals.

3. To chill; to stagnate, or to retire from the extreme vessels; as, the blood freezes in the veins.

4. To be chilled; to shiver with cold.

5. To die by means of cold. We say a man freezes to death.

FREEZE, verb transitive

1. To congeal; to harden into ice; to change from a fluid to a solid form by cold or abstraction of heat. This weather will freeze the rivers and lakes.

2. To kill by cold; but we often add the words to death. this air will freeze you, or freeze you to death.

3. To chill; to give the sensation of cold and shivering. This horrid tale freezes my blood.

FREEZE, in architecture. [See Frieze.]