That spirit of religion and seriousness vanished all at once, and a
spirit of liberty and libertinism, of infidelity and profaneness,
started up in the room of it.
Atterbury.
Lib"er*ty (lb"r*t), n.; pl. Liberties (- tz). [OE. liberte, F. liberté,
fr. L. libertas, fr. liber free. See Liberal.] 1. The state of a free
person; exemption from subjection to the will of another claiming
ownership of the person or services; freedom; -- opposed to slavery,
serfdom, bondage, or subjection.
But ye . . . caused every man his servant, and every man his
handmaid whom he had set at liberty at their pleasure, to return,
and brought them into subjection.
Jer. xxxiv. 16.
Delivered fro the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty
of the sons of God.
Bible, 1551. Rom. viii. 21.
2. Freedom from imprisonment, bonds, or other restraint upon
locomotion.
Being pent from liberty, as I am now.
Shak.
3. A privilege conferred by a superior power; permission granted;
leave; as, liberty given to a child to play, or to a witness to leave a
court, and the like.
4. Privilege; exemption; franchise; immunity enjoyed by prescription or
by grant; as, the liberties of the commercial cities of Europe.
His majesty gave not an entire county to any; much less did he
grant . . . any extraordinary liberties.
Sir J. Davies.
5. The place within which certain immunities are enjoyed, or
jurisdiction is exercised. [Eng.]
Brought forth into some public or open place within the liberty of
the city, and there . . . burned.
Fuller.
6. A certain amount of freedom; permission to go freely within certain
limits; also, the place or limits within which such freedom is
exercised; as, the liberties of a prison.
7. A privilege or license in violation of the laws of etiquette or
propriety; as, to permit, or take, a liberty.
He was repeatedly provoked into striking those who had taken
liberties with him.
Macaulay.
8. The power of choice; freedom from necessity; freedom from compulsion
or constraint in willing.
The idea of liberty is the idea of a power in any agent to do or
forbear any particular action, according to the determination or
thought of the mind, whereby either of them is preferred to the
other.
Locke.
This liberty of judgment did not of necessity lead to lawlessness.
J. A. Symonds.
9. (Manege) A curve or arch in a bit to afford room for the tongue of
the horse.