liberty
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlɪb.ɪ.ti/
ipa: /ˈlɪb.ə.ti/
ipa: /ˈlɪb.ɚ.ti/
ipa: [ˈlɪb.ɚ.ɾi]
ipa: /ˈlɪb.ɪ.ti/
ipa: [ˈlɪb.ɪ.ɾi]
Forms: form: liberties
form: libertie
Etymology: From Middle English liberte, from Old French liberté, from Latin libertas (“freedom”), from liber (“free”); see liberal.
Senses: examples: text: The army is here, your liberty is assured.
text: Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, upon this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that "all men are created equal"^([sic])
ref: 1863 November 19, Abraham Lincoln, Dedicatory Remarks (Gettysburg Address)^(https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Gettysburg_Address_(Nicolay_draft)), near Soldiers' National Cemetery, →LCCN, Nicolay draft, page 1:
text: But as the philosopher Isaiah Berlin sagely pointed out, liberty for wolves means death to lambs.
ref: 2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, quoting Isaiah Berlin, chapter 5, in Merchants of Doubt:
text: [Edmund] Burke continued to fight for liberty later on in life. He backed Americans in their campaign for freedom from British taxation. He supported Catholic freedoms and freer trade with Ireland, in spite of his constituents’ ire. He wanted more liberal laws on the punishment of debtors.
ref: 2014 July 5, “Freedom fighter”, in The Economist, volume 412, number 8894:
text: Now liberal cultural power has increased, the ACLU doesn’t seem very interested in the liberties of non-progressives anymore, and Dr. Seuss sells as pricey samizdat.
ref: 2021 March 7, Ross Douthat, “Do Liberals Care if Books Disappear?”, in The New York Times:
glosses: The condition of being free.
examples: text: The prisoners gained their liberty from an underground tunnel.
glosses: The condition of being free from imprisonment, slavery or forced labour.
examples: text: Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.
text: I'd gie my ſhoon frae aff my feet, / To taſte ſic fruit, I ſwear, man. / Syne let us pray, auld England may / Sure plant this far-famed tree, man; / And blythe we'll ſing, and hail the day / That gave us liberty, man.
ref: 1869, Robert Burns, “The Tree of Liberty”, in Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, volume III (Posthumous Poems), Kilmarnock, Scotland: […] James M‘Kie, →OCLC, page 360:
glosses: The condition of being free to act, believe or express oneself as one chooses.
examples: text: The threat of terrorism to the British lies in the overreaction to it of British governments. Each one in turn clicks up the ratchet of surveillance, intrusion and security. Each one diminishes liberty.
ref: 2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23:
glosses: Freedom from excessive government control.
examples: text: We're going on a three-day liberty as soon as we dock.
glosses: A short period when a sailor is allowed ashore.
examples: text: You needn't take such liberties.
glosses: A breach of social convention.
glosses: A local division of government administration in medieval England.
qualifier: go
glosses: An empty space next to a group of stones of the same color.
Synonyms: freedom
Derived terms: antiliberty
at liberty
cap of liberty
Cinderella liberty
civil liberty
cyberliberty
illiberty
indecent liberty
liberty bodice
liberty bond
liberty cabbage
liberty cap
Liberty County
Liberty Grove
libertyless
liberty loan
liberty man
liberty measles
liberty of conscience
liberty of indifference
liberty of speech
liberty sandwich
liberty ship
liberty spike
liberty steak
liberty taker
person deprived of liberty
take liberties
take the liberty
Related terms: liberal
liberalism
liberate
libertarian
libertarianism
liberticidal
liberticide
libertine