Definition of "liberal"

1983, David Leslie Wagner, The Seven liberal arts in the Middle Ages

Americans remain enamored with Europe's ability to produce the consequential thought for America. It was the same in nearly every liberal field. Education sought its roots in such Europeans as Froebel, Frobenius, and Rousseau. Political science tried to connect to Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Nietzsche, Machiavelli, and Otto von Bismarck, for instance. Economics copied the thought of Adam Smith, […]

1997, Gordon D. Morgan, Toward an American Sociology: Questioning the European Construct, page 45

2008, Donal G. Mulcahy, The Educated Person: Toward a New Paradigm for Liberal Education

Indeed, the Government has been very liberal in the expenditure of public money

1899, J. M. Baltimore, “Pacific Coast Light Service”, in Overland Monthly, volume 33

When he shows improvement she is liberal with her praise and then moves on to the next set of skills to be learnt.

2005, John Gardner, Assessment and Learning, page 50

Queen Isabella was already being called Santa Isabella by many of her subjects because she was liberal with her alms.

2007, Helena Page Schrader, The English Templar, page 309

Was it because the believers were so liberal with their possessions that God was so liberal with his grace?

2010, Simon Guillebaud, More Than Conquerors: A Call to Radical Discipleship, page 142

Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.

2013 June 14, Jonathan Freedland, “Obama's once hip brand is now tainted”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 1, page 18

For this reason a liberal amount of piping should be used. If a liberal supply of piping is provided at first, the first cost will of course be greater, but the extra expenditure is called for but once.

1896, Ice and refrigeration, volume 11, page 93

The result was usually that such helpers got a liberal sprinkling of mud over their clothing.

2009, R. Furman Kenney, Chesterville: The Village at the End of the Road, page 102

Rose put a steaming cup of mint tea in front of me and spooned a liberal helping of honey into it.

2011, Marlene Perez, Dead Is Not an Option, page 37

Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,Confess'd the vile encounters they have hadA thousand times in secret.

1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act IV, scene i]