Definition of "free"

Quickly, spirit! / Thou shalt ere long be free.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene i]

There was some laughter, and Roddle was left free to expand his ideas on the periodic visits of cowboys to the town. “Mason Rickets, he had ten big punkins a-sittin' in front of his store, an' them fellers from the Upside-down-F ranch shot 'em up […] .”

1899, Stephen Crane, chapter 1, in Twelve O'Clock

Policing the relationship between government and business in a free society is difficult. Businesspeople have every right to lobby governments, and civil servants to take jobs in the private sector.

2013 August 10, Schumpeter, “Cronies and capitols”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8848

Since the launch early last year of […] two Silicon Valley start-ups offering free education through MOOCs, massive open online courses, the ivory towers of academia have been shaken to their foundations. University brands built in some cases over centuries have been forced to contemplate the possibility that information technology will rapidly make their existing business model obsolete.

2013 July 20, “The attack of the MOOCs”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8845

princes declaring themselves free from the obligations of their treaties

1679-1715, Gilbert Burnet, The History of the Reformation of the Church of England

One morning I had been driven to the precarious refuge afforded by the steps of the inn, after rejecting offers from the Celebrity to join him in a variety of amusements. But even here I was not free from interruption, for he was seated on a horse-block below me, playing with a fox terrier.

1897 December (indicated as 1898), Winston Churchill, chapter IV, in The Celebrity: An Episode, New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company; London: Macmillan & Co., Ltd.

He therefore makes all birds, of every sect, / Free of his farm.

1697, John Dryden, “Part 3, line 1245”, in The Hind and the Panther

Above all, the 48-page timetables of the new service, which have been distributed free at every station in the scheme, are a model to the rest of B.R. For the first time on British Railways, so far as we are aware, a substantial timetable has been produced, not only without a single footnote but also devoid of all wearisome asterisks, stars, letter suffixes and other hieroglyphics.

1960 December, “The Glasgow Suburban Electrification is opened”, in Trains Illustrated, page 714

I as free forgive you / As I would be forgiven.

c. 1601–1602, William Shakespeare, Henry VIII, published 1623

Pro. […] Spirit, fine ſpirit, Ile free thee / Within two dayes for this.

1610–1611 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tempest”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act I, scene ii], page 5

Then I walked about, till I found on the further side, a great river of sweet water, running with a strong current; whereupon I called to mind the boat-raft I had made aforetime and said to myself, "Needs must I make another; haply I may free me from this strait. If I escape, I have my desire and I vow to Allah Almighty to forswear travel; and if I perish I shall be at peace and shall rest from toil and moil."

1885, Richard F. Burton, The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 564

There is no way to access that original area of memory, nor is there any way to free it before the program ends.

2002, Jesse Liberty, SAMS Teach Yourself C++ in 24 Hours, page 148

Whether deserved or not, the free gave Cresswell the chance to cover himself in glory with a shot on goal after the siren.

2006

Hargreaves, who left Manchester United on a free during the summer, drilled a 22-yard beauty to open the scoring.

2011 September 21, Sam Lyon, “Man City 2 - 0 Birmingham”, in BBC Sport‎