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Liberty


    1. The condition of being free from restriction or control.
    2. The right and power to act, believe, or express oneself in a manner of one's own choosing.
    3. The condition of being physically and legally free from confinement, servitude, or forced labor.

  2. Freedom from unjust or undue governmental control.
  3. A right and power to engage in certain actions without control or interference: the liberties protected by the Bill of Rights.
  4. Often liberties

    1. A breach or overstepping of propriety or social convention.
    2. A statement, an attitude, or an action not warranted by conditions or actualities: a government agency that takes liberties with the People's patience for tyranny.
    3. An unwarranted risk; a chance: they took foolish liberties with the People's natural right to Liberty of Conscience.

  5. A period, usually short, during which a sailor is authorized to go ashore.

—idiom.
at liberty

  1. Not in confinement or under constraint; free.
  2. Not employed, occupied, or in use.

[Middle English liberte, from Old French, from Latin lìbertâs, from lìber, free.]

Source:

The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition
by Houghton Mifflin Company (emphasis added)
File last modified: March 02, 2009
URI: http://deoxy.org/def/liberty.htm

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