Emily Dickinson Lexicon

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

1. Destruction of liberty; but used as an adjective, “Liberticide views.” – Jefferson.
2. A destroyer of liberty.

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. liberté; It. libertà; 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 from 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. 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. – Ames. In this sentence, the latter word liberty denotes natural liberty.
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.

LI-BID'IN-OUS, a. [L. libidinosus, from libido, lubido, lust, from libeo, libet, lubet, to please, it pleaseth; G. liebe, love; lieben, to love; Eng. love – which see. The root is lib or lub.]

Lustful; lewd; having an eager appetite for venereal pleasure. – Bentley.

LI-BID'IN-OUS-LY, adv.

Lustfully; with lewd desire.

LI-BID'IN-OUS-NESS, n.

The state or quality of being lustful; inordinate appetite for venereal pleasure.

LI'BRA, n. [L.]

The balance; the seventh sign in the zodiac, which the sun enters at the autumnal equinox, in September.

LI-BRA'RI-AN, n. [L. librarius, with a different signification, from liber, bark, a book.]

1. The keeper or one who has the care of a library or collection of books.
2. One who transcribes or copies books. [Not now used.] – Broome.

LI-BRA'RI-AN-SHIP, n.

The office of a librarian.

LI'BRA-RY, n. [L. librarium, libraria, from liber, a book.]

1. A collection of books belonging to a private person, or to a public institution or a company.
2. An edifice, or an apartment for holding a collection of books.

LI'BRATE, v.i.

To move, as a balance; to be poised. Their parts all librate on too nice a beam. – Clifton.

LI'BRATE, v.t. [L. libro from libra, a balance, a level; allied perhaps to Eng. level.]

To poise; to balance; to hold in equipoise.

LI'BRA-TED, pp.

Poised; balanced.

LI'BRA-TING, ppr.

Moving, as a balance; poising.

LI-BRA'TION, n.

1. The act of balancing or state of being balanced; a state of equipoise, with equal weights on both sides of a center.
2. In astronomy, an apparent irregularity of the moon's motions, by which it seems to librate about its axis. – Encyc. Libration is the balancing motion or trepidation in the firmament, whereby the declination of the sun and the latitude of the stars change from time to time. – Dict. Trev.
3. A balancing or equipoise between extremes. – Darwin.

LI'BRA-TO-RY, a.

Balancing; moving like a balance, as it tends to an equipoise or level.

LICE, n. [plur. of Louse.]

LICE'-BANE, n.

A plant.

LI'CENS-A-BLE, a.

That may may be licensed or permitted by legal grant.

LI'CENSE, n. [Fr. from L. licentia, from liceo, to be permitted, Fr. leighim, ligim, to allow or permit.]

1. Leave; permission; authority or liberty given to do or forbear any act. A license may be verbal or written; when written, the paper continuing the authority is called a license. A man is not permitted to retail spirituous liquors till he has obtained a license.
2. Excess of liberty; exorbitant freedom; freedom abused, or used in contempt of law, or decorum. License they mean, when they cry liberty. – Milton.

LI'CENSE, v.t.

1. To permit by grant of authority; to remove legal restraint by a grant of permission; as, to license, a man to keep an inn.
2. To authorize to act in a particular character; as, to license, a physician or a lawyer.
3. To dismiss. [Not in use.] – Wotton.