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Room; space; freedom from confinement or restraint; hence, looseness; laxity; independence. In human actions there are no degrees and precise natural limits described, but a latitude is indulged. Jer. Taylor.

Not restrained; not confined by precise limits.

or toward the person or persons laughed at. -- To laugh out, to laugh in spite of some restraining influence; to laugh aloud. -- To laugh out of the other corner (or side) of the mouth, to weep or cry; to feel regret, vexation, or disappointment after hilarity or exaltation. [Slang]

Not subject to, or restrained by, the law of morality or of society; as, lawless men or behavior.

to consider earnestly. -- To lay under, to subject to; as, to lay under obligation or restraint. -- To lay unto. (a) Same as To lay to (above). (b) To put before. Hos. xi. 4. -- To lay up. (a) To store; to reposit for future use. (b) To confine; to disable. (c) To dismantle, and retire from active service, as a shi…

Liberty granted by which restraint or illegality is removed; permission; allowance; license. David earnestly asked leave of me. 1 Sam. xx. 6. No friend has leave to bear away the dead. Dryden.

w; to suffer; -- either affirmatively, by positive act, or negatively, by neglecting to restrain or prevent.

Free to excess; regardless of law or moral restraint; licentious. " Most like a liberal villain." Shak.

To release from restraint or bondage; to set at liberty; to free; to manumit; to disengage; as, to liberate a slave or prisoner; to liberate the mind from prejudice; to liberate gases.

One free from restraint; one who acts according to his impulses and desires; now, specifically, one who gives rein to lust; a rake; a debauchee. Like a puffed and reckless libertine, Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. Shak.

Freedom from imprisonment, bonds, or other restraint upon locomotion. Being pent from liberty, as I am now. Shak.

One who acts without restraint, or takes a liberty, as if having a license therefor. [Obs.] Bp. Hall.

Unrestrained by law or morality; lawless; immoral; dissolute; lewd; lascivious; as, a licentious man; a licentious life. "Licentious wickedness." Shak.

To try to raise something; to exert the strength for raising or bearing. Strained by lifting at a weight too heavy. Locke.

Hence: Any real or imaginary place of restraint or confinement; a prison; as, to put a man in limbo.

That which terminates, circumscribes, restrains, or confines; the bound, border, or edge; the utmost extent; as, the limit of a walk, of a town, of a country; the limits of human knowledge or endeavor. As eager of the chase, the maid Beyond the forest's verdant limits strayed. Pope.

That which limits; a restriction; a qualification; a restraining condition, defining circumstance, or qualifying conception; as, limitations of thought. The cause of error is ignorance what restraints and limitations all principles have in regard of the matter whereunto they are applicable. Hooker.

mass of confined liquid, etc., by which relative motion of other parts is produced and constrained.

Extended to a great length. The cicadæ hushed their long-drawn, ear-splitting strains. G. W. Cable.

Free from constraint or obligation; not bound by duty, habit, etc. ; -- with from or of. Now I stand Loose of my vow; but who knows Cato's thoughts Addison.