Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LIB'ER-AL-ISM, n.

Liberal principles. M'Gacein.

LIB'ER-AL-IST, n.

One who is liberal or who favors liberal opinions; an infidel.

LIB-ER-AL'I-TY, n. [L. liberalitas; Fr. liberalité. See Liberal.]

1. Munificence; bounty. That liberality is but cast away, Which makes us borrow what we can not pay. Denham
2. A particular act of generosity; a donation; a gratuity. In this sense, it has the plural number. A prudent man is not impoverished by his liberalities.
3. Largeness of mind; catholicism; that comprehensiveness of mind which includes other interests besides its own, duly estimates in its decisions the value or importance each. It is evidence of a noble mind to judge of men and things with liberality. Many treat the Gospel with indifference under the name of liberality. J. M. Masen
4. Candor; impartiality.

LIB'ER-AL-IZE, v.t.

To render liberal or catholic; to enlarge; to free from narrow views or prejudices; as, to liberalize the mind. Burke. Walsh.

LIB'ER-AL-IZ-ED, pp.

Freed from narrow views and prejudices; made liberal.

LIB'ERALIZING, ppr.

Rendering liberal; divesting of narrow views and prejudices.

LIB'ER-AL-LY, adv.

1. Bountifully; freely; largely; with munificence. If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, who giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not. James i.
2. With generous and impartial regard to other interests than our own; with enlarged views; without selfishness or meanness; as, to think or judge liberally of men and their actions.
3. Freely; not strictly; not literally.

LIB'ER-AL-MIND-ED, a.

Having a liberal mind.

LIB'ER-AL-SOUL-ED, a.

Having a generous soul.

LIB'ER-ATE, v.t. [L. libero, from liber, free; Fr. liberer, It. liberare.]

1. To free; to release from restraint or bondage; to set at liberty; as, to liberate one from duress or imprisonment; to liberate the mind from the shackles of prejudice.
2. To manumit; as, to liberate a slave.

LIB'ER-A-TED, pp.

Freed; released from confinement, restraint or slavery; manumitted.

LIB'ER-A-TING, ppr.

Delivering from restraint or slavery.

LIB-ER-A'TION, n. [L. liberation.]

The act of delivering from restraint, confinement or slavery.

LIB'ER-A-TOR, n.

One who liberates or delivers.

LIB-ER-TA'RI-AN, a. [L. liber, free; libertas, liberty.]

Pertaining to liberty, or to the doctrine of free will, as opposed to the doctrine of necessity. Remove from their mind libertarian prejudice. Eneyc

LIB-ER-TA'RI-AN, n.

One who holds to free will.

LIB-ER-TA'RI-AN-ISM, n.

The principles or doctrines of libertarians.

LIBER-TI-CIDE, n.

A destroyer of liberty.

LIB'ER-TI-CIDE, n. [Liberty, and Lat. cædo.]

Destruction of liberty; but used as an adjective, "Liberticide views." Jefferson

LIB'ER-TIN-AGE, n.

Libertinism—which is most used.

LIB'ER-TINE, a.

Licentious; dissolute; not under the restraint of law or religion; as, libertine principles; a libertine life.

LIB'ER-TINE, n. [L. libertinus, from liber, free.]

1. Among the Romans, a freedman; a person manumitted or set free from legal servitude.
2. One unconfined; one free from restraint.
3. A man who lives without restraint of the animal passion; one who indulges his lust without restraint; one who leads a dissolute, licentious life; a rake; a debauchee.

LIB'ER-TIN-ISM, n.

1. State of a freedman. [Little used.] Hammond.
2. Licentiousness of opinion and practice; an unrestrained indulgence of lust; debauchery; lewdness. Atterbury

LIB'ER-TY, n. [L. libertas, from liber, free; Fr. liberte.; It. liberta; Sp. libertad. Class Lb, No. 24, 27, 30, 31.]

1. Freedom from restraint, in a general sense, and applicable to the body, or to the will or mind. The body is at liberty, when not confined; the will or mind is at liberty, when not checked or controlled. A man enjoys liberty, when no physical force operates to restrain his actions or volition.
2. Natural liberty, consists in the power of acting as one thinks fit, without any restraint or control, except from the laws of nature. It is a state of exemption front the control of others, and from positive laws and the institutions of social life. This liberty is abridged by the establishment of government.
3. Civil liberty, is the liberty of men in a state of society, or natural liberty, so far only abridged and restrained, as is necessary and expedient for the safety and interest of the society, state or nation. A restraint of natural liberty, not necessary or expedient for the public, is tyranny or oppression. Civil liberty is an exemption from the arbitrary will of others, which exemption is secured by established laws, which restrain every man from injuring or controlling another. Hence the restraints of law are essential to civil liberty. Ames. In this sentence, the latter word liberty denotes natural liberty. The liberty of one depends not so much on the removal of all restraint from him as on the due restraint upon the liberty of others.
4. Political liberty, is sometimes used as synonymous with civil liberty. But it more properly designates the liberty of a nation, the freedom of a nation or state from all unjust abridgment of its rights and independence by another nation. Hence we often speak of the political liberties of Europe, or the nations of Europe.
5. Religious liberty, is the free right of adopting and enjoying opinions on religious subjects, and of worshipping the Supreme Being according to the dictates of conscience, without external control.
6. Liberty, in metaphysics, as opposed to necessity, is the power of an agent to do or forbear any particular action, according to the determination or thought of the mind, by which either is preferred to the other. Locke.
7. Privilege; exemption; immunity enjoyed by prescription or by grant; with a plural. Thus we speak of the liberties of the commercial cities of Europe.
8. Leave; permission granted. The witness obtained liberty to leave the court.
9. A space in which one is permitted to pass without restraint, and beyond which he may not lawfully pass: with a plural; as, the liberties of a prison.
10. Freedom of action or speech beyond the ordinary bounds of civility or decorum. Females should repel all improper liberties. To take the liberty to do or say any thing, to use freedom not specially granted. To set at liberty, to deliver from confinement; to release from restraint. To be at liberty, to be free from restraint. Liberty of the press, is freedom from any restriction on the power to publish books; the free power of publishing what one pleases, subject only to punishment for abusing the privilege, or publishing what is mischievous to the public, or injurious to individuals. Blackstone.

LIB'ID-IN-IST, n.

One given to lewdness. Junius.