freestyle

plural freestyles · alternative free-style

1. A sports event where competitors can choose their own method of participation.
   1. countableuncountablehobbiesA swimming event in which the contestants may choose any stroke.
   2. broadlycountableuncountablehobbiesThe swimming stroke commonly referred to as the front crawl or the Australian crawl.
   3. countableuncountablehobbiesA cross-country skiing event in which the competitors may choose any style of skiing.
   4. broadlycountableuncountablehobbiesThe skiing style commonly referred to as skating.
   5. countableuncountablegovernmentA style of wrestling in which any non-injurious holds are permitted.
2. countableuncountableentertainmentA form of rapping in which the emcee makes up lyrics while performing.

   In the world of hip hop, many freestyle artists have been known to speak, “Check one, check two!” into the microphone. The phrasing serves two purposes: (1) to put the freestyle artist on rhythm with the beat and (2) […]

   2014, Michael W. Waters, Freestyle: Reflections on Faith, Family, Justice, and Pop Culture, Fresh Air Books, →ISBN

3. attributivebroadlycountableuncountableAnything done in an improvised or unrestricted way.

   (While there are definitely a large number of Japanese cookbooks out there with detailed instructions and measurements, it was this freestyle cooking philosophy I most frequently encountered.)

   2012, Sarah Marx Feldner, A Cook's Journey to Japan: 100 Homestyle Recipes from Japanese Kitchens, Tuttle Publishing, →ISBN

4. abbreviationcountableellipsisuncountableentertainmentEllipsis of Latin freestyle, a form of electronic dance music.

   Already a veteran DJ-producer on New York’s freestyle scene, 23-year-old Frankie Bones was flown to England for an Energy rave.

   2012, Simon Reynolds, Energy Flash, Soft Skull Press, page 281

   1 more example

   A not always visibly but nevertheless significantly Latin music, freestyle originated alongside hip-hop in the Bronx and achieved a quicker yet more fleeting commercial success. The style’s similarities to contemporaneous R&B and hi-NRG endeared it to pop radio programmers, […]

   2012 March 2, Nick Minichino, “A Quick Primer On Freestyle: 1980s Dancepop's Most Underheralded Genre”, in The Village Voice, archived from the original on 16 Nov 2022

present singular third person freestyles · participle present freestyling · participle past freestyled · past freestyled · alternative free-style

1. especiallyintransitiveTo improvise one's own style; to ad-lib.

   And just hours after the famous golfer died in an airplane accident, I freestyled to a less talented rival, “Stop now before you get hurt / Your whole style should never take flight like Payne Stewart.”

   2016, Jensen Karp, Kanye West Owes Me $300: And Other True Stories from a White Rapper Who Almost Made It Big, Crown, →ISBN, page 47

2. intransitiveTo improvise one's dance moves; dance freely.
3. intransitiveTo improvise something in an unrestricted way.