Free"dom (frē"dŭm), n. [AS. freódōm; freófree + - dom. See Free, and -dom.] 1. The state of being free; exemption from the power and control of another; liberty; independence.

Made captive, yet deserving freedom more.

Milton.

2. Privileges; franchises; immunities.

Your charter and your caty's freedom.

Shak.

3. Exemption from necessity, in choise and action; as, the freedom of the will.

4. Ease; facility; as, he speaks or acts with freedom.

5. Frankness; openness; unreservedness.

I emboldened spake and freedom used.

Milton.

6. Improper familiarity; violation of the rules of decorum; license.

7. Generosity; liberality. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Freedom fine, a sum paid on entry to incorporations of trades. -- Freedom of the city, the possession of the rights and privileges of a freeman of the city; formerly often, and now occasionally, conferred on one not a resident, as a mark of honorary distinction for public services.

Syn. -- See Liberty.

FREEDOM, n. Exemption from the stress of authority in a beggarly half
dozen of restraint's infinite multitude of methods. A political
condition that every nation supposes itself to enjoy in virtual
monopoly. Liberty. The distinction between freedom and liberty is
not accurately known; naturalists have never been able to find a
living specimen of either.

Freedom, as every schoolboy knows,
Once shrieked as Kosciusko fell;
On every wind, indeed, that blows
I hear her yell.

She screams whenever monarchs meet,
And parliaments as well,
To bind the chains about her feet
And toll her knell.

And when the sovereign people cast
The votes they cannot spell,
Upon the pestilential blast
Her clamors swell.

For all to whom the power's given
To sway or to compel,
Among themselves apportion Heaven
And give her Hell.

Blary O'Gary