free

Multiple Entries:
  free    -free  

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
free/friː/

▶adjective (freer, freest)

• 1 not under the control or in the power of another.

  ■ subject neither to foreign domination nor despotic government: a free press.

  ■ permitted to take a specified action.

• 2 not or no longer confined, obstructed, or fixed: the researchers set the birds free.

  ■ Physics (of power or energy) disengaged or available.

  ■ Physics & Chemistry not bound in an atom, molecule, or compound: free oxygen.

• 3 not subject to engagements or obligations.

  ■ not occupied or in use.

• 4 (free of/from) not subject to or affected by: an area free from weeds.

• 5 available without charge.

• 6 generous or lavish: she was always free with her money.

  ■ frank or unrestrained.

• 7 not observing the normal conventions; improvised: free jazz.

  ■ (of a translation) conveying only the broad sense; not literal.

• 8 Sailing (of the wind) blowing from a favourable direction to the side or aft of a vessel.

▶adverb

• 1 without cost or payment.

• 2 Sailing with the sheets eased.

▶verb (frees, freeing, freed)

• 1 make free; release.

• 2 relieve of something undesirable or restrictive.

• 3 make available.

– phrases
free and easy informal and relaxed.
a free hand freedom to act completely at one's own discretion.
free on board (or rail) including delivery without charge to a ship (or railway wagon).
a free ride a situation in which someone benefits without having to make a fair contribution.
the free world the non-communist countries of the world, as formerly opposed to the Soviet bloc.
make free with treat without proper respect.

– derivatives
freeness noun.

– origin OE frēo (adj.), frēon (v.), of Gmc origin; rel. to friend.

Concise Oxford English Dictionary © 2008 Oxford University Press:
-free/friː/

▶combining form free of or from: tax-free.