liberty

plural liberties · alternative obsolete libertie

1. countableuncountableThe condition of being free.

   The army is here, your liberty is assured.

   4 more examples

   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])

   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

   But as the philosopher Isaiah Berlin sagely pointed out, liberty for wolves means death to lambs.

   2010, Naomi Oreskes, Erik M. Conway, quoting Isaiah Berlin, chapter 5, in Merchants of Doubt

   [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.

   2014 July 5, “Freedom fighter”, in The Economist, volume 412, number 8894

   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.

   2021 March 7, Ross Douthat, “Do Liberals Care if Books Disappear?”, in The New York Times

2. countableuncountableThe condition of being free from imprisonment, slavery or forced labour.

   The prisoners gained their liberty from an underground tunnel.

3. countableuncountableThe condition of being free to act, believe or express oneself as one chooses.

   Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

   1 more example

   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.

   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

4. countableuncountableFreedom from excessive government control.

   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.

   2012 December 14, Simon Jenkins, “We mustn't overreact to North Korea boys' toys”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 188, number 2, page 23

5. countableuncountableA short period when a sailor is allowed ashore.

   We're going on a three-day liberty as soon as we dock.

6. countableoftenpluraluncountableA breach of social convention.

   You needn't take such liberties.

7. countablehistoricaluncountableA local division of government administration in medieval England.
8. countableuncountablegoAn empty space next to a group of stones of the same color.

plural Libertys

1. A surname.
   1. countableuncountableA surname from French.
   2. countableuncountableA freed slave surname originating as an occupation.
2. A unisex given name.
   1. countableuncountableA female given name from English.

      Then last came Liberty. What a name, Mason always thought. It was an invention of her mother's―a flighty woman who had run away from Porter with a hippie stereo salesman eight and a half years ago and discovered immediately afterward that she was two months pregnant.

      1985, Anne Tyler, The Accidental Tourist, →ISBN, page 171

   2. countableuncountableA male given name from English.
3. A number of places in the United States, including:
   1. countableuncountableA town, the county seat of Union County, Indiana.
   2. countableuncountableA minor city in Montgomery County, Kansas.
   3. countableuncountableA city, the county seat of Casey County, Kentucky.
   4. countableuncountableA town, the county seat of Amite County, Mississippi.
   5. countableuncountableA city, the county seat of Clay County, Missouri.
   6. countableuncountableA town and village therein, in Sullivan County, New York.
   7. countableuncountableA city, the county seat of Liberty County, Texas.
   8. countableuncountableA town in Grant County, Wisconsin.
   9. countableuncountableA town in Manitowoc County, Wisconsin.
   10. countableuncountableA town in Outagamie County, Wisconsin.
   11. countableuncountableA town and unincorporated community therein, in Vernon County, Wisconsin.
   12. countableuncountableA number of townships in the United States, listed under Liberty Township.

1. uncountableUsed attributively to designate various items (especially textiles) sold by (or characteristic of) the Liberty department store in Regent Street, London.First known use 19th c.

   The piano was draped in Liberty silk and so was the chimney-piece.

   1915, W. Somerset Maugham, chapter 40, in Of Human Bondage

   1 more example

   It had long been dismantled of the Liberty curtains, Persian rugs, and cheap Japaneseries.

   1894, William John Locke, At the Gate of Samaria