liberal
Part of speech: adj
noun
Morphological type: simple
Topics: education
government
politics
Etymology: The adjective is from Old French liberal, from Latin līberālis (“befitting a freeman”), from līber (“free”); it is attested since the 14th century. The noun is first attested in the 1800s.
Inflected forms:
form: more liberal
pos: adj
tags: comparative
form: most liberal
pos: adj
tags: superlative
form: liberals
pos: noun
tags: plural
Senses:
gloss: Generous; permitting liberty; willing to give unsparingly.
pos: adj
examples: He was liberal with his compliments.
Indeed, the Government has been very liberal in the expenditure of public money
When he shows improvement she is liberal with her praise and then moves on to the next set of skills to be learnt.
Queen Isabella was already being called Santa Isabella by many of her subjects because she was liberal with her alms.
Was it because the believers were so liberal with their possessions that God was so liberal with his grace?
Now we are liberal with our innermost secrets, spraying them into the public ether with a generosity our forebears could not have imagined. Where we once sent love letters in a sealed envelope, or stuck photographs of our children in a family album, now such private material is despatched to servers and clouds operated by people we don't know and will never meet.
gloss: Ample, abundant; generous in quantity.
pos: adj
examples: Add a liberal sprinkling of salt.
For this reason a liberal amount of piping should be used. If a liberal supply of piping is provided at first, the first cost will of course be greater, but the extra expenditure is called for but once.
The result was usually that such helpers got a liberal sprinkling of mud over their clothing.
Rose put a steaming cup of mint tea in front of me and spooned a liberal helping of honey into it.
gloss: Widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive.
pos: adj
examples: Her parents had liberal ideas about child-rearing.
gloss: Unrestrained, licentious.
pos: adj
tags: obsolete
examples: Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;
Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
A thousand times in secret.
gloss: Pertaining to a type of education the purpose of which is personal development rather than functional learning.
pos: adj
examples: Americans remain enamored with Europe's ability to produce the consequential thought for America. It was the same in nearly every liberal field. Education sought its roots in such Europeans as Froebel, Frobenius, and Rousseau. Political science tried to connect to Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, Nietzsche, Machiavelli, and Otto von Bismarck, for instance. Economics copied the thought of Adam Smith, […]
gloss: Pertaining to a type of education the purpose of which is personal development rather than functional learning.
pos: adj
examples: He had a full education studying the liberal arts.
gloss: Open to political or social changes and reforms associated with either classical liberalism or "modern liberalism"/progressivism.
pos: adj
examples: Endorsing the liberal anti-interventionist credo that the marketplace should act as the "site of verification," the advocates of white lead opposed government intervention for the sake of open economic competition, which they claimed revealed its true value and thus should be the sole determinant: "When the railways were built, the stage coaches disppeared; they died a timely death. If zinc white is truly superior to white lead, it will kill us in the marketplace, but the government should not intervene." These were the words of Expert-Bezançon, in his February 1903 deposition to the parliamentary committee examining the bill for banning lead-based pigments in paint.
gloss: One with liberal views, supporting individual liberty (see Wikipedia's article on Liberalism).
pos: noun
gloss: Someone with progressive or left-wing views, especially on social and environmental issues.
pos: noun
tags: Canadian
Philippine
US
examples: And I love Puerto Ricans and Negros
As long as they don't move next door.
So love me, love me, love me, I'm a liberal.
gloss: A supporter of any of several liberal parties.
pos: noun
gloss: One who favors individual voting rights, human and civil rights, and laissez-faire markets (also called "classical liberal"; compare libertarian).
pos: noun
tags: UK
gloss: A conservative, especially a liberal conservative.
pos: noun
tags: Australian
Related words: liberalism
liberalist
liberate
liberation
libertarian
liberty
Derived words: archliberal
boba liberal
classical liberal
counterliberal
counter-liberal
hyperliberal
latte liberal
Liberal
liberal arts
liberal conservatism
liberal conservatives
liberal democracy
Liberal Democrat
liberal education
liberal elite
liberalese
liberal eugenics
liberal feminism
liberal guilt
liberal homophobia
liberalish
liberalistic
liberalitis
liberality
liberalization
liberalize
liberally
liberalminded
liberal-minded
liberal-mindedly
liberal-mindedness
liberalness
liberal parties
Liberal Party
liberal party
liberalphobia
liberal science
liberalspeak
liberaltarian
Liberal Unionist
liberalward
Liberal Zionism
librandu
libshit
libtard
libturd
lieberal
limousine liberal
milliberal
NazLib
neoclassical liberal
nonliberal
overliberal
palaeoliberal
paleoliberal
postliberal
preliberal
protoliberal
pseudoliberal
scratch a liberal and a fascist bleeds
scratch a liberal and you'll find a fascist
semiliberal
small l liberal
small liberal
social liberal
superliberal
technoliberal
ultraliberal
unliberal
neo-liberal
neoliberal
economic liberal
Translations:
lang: Finnish
word: vasemmistolainen
lang: Polish
word: liberał
lang: Scottish Gaelic
word: libearalach