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Imprisonment; restraint of the person; custody by a jailer; duress. Shak. "Durance vile." Burns. In durance, exile, Bedlam or the mint. Pope.

Hardship; constraint; pressure; imprisonment; restraint of liberty. The agreements . . . made with the landlords during the time of slavery, are only the effect of duress and force. Burke.

Freedom from constraint, formality, difficulty, embarrassment, etc.; facility; liberty; naturalness; -- said of manner, style, etc.; as, ease of style, of behavior, of address. True ease in writing comes from art, not chance. Pope. Whate'er he did was done with so much ease, In him alone 't was natural to please. Dryde…

Freedom from effort, constraint, or formality; -- said of style, manner, etc. With painful care, but seeming easiness. Roscommon.

At ease; free from pain, trouble, or constraint; as: (a) Free from pain, distress, toil, exertion, and the like; quiet; as, the patient is easy. (b) Free from care, responsibility, discontent, and the like; not anxious; tranquil; as, an easy mind. (c) Free from constraint, harshness, or formality; unconstrained; smooth…

That which enforces, constraints, gives force, authority, or effect to; constraint; force applied. The rewards and punishment of another life, which the Almighty has established as the enforcements of his law. Locke.

To set at large or set free. [Archaic] It will enlarge us from all restraints. Barrow. Enlarging hammer, a hammer with a slightly rounded face of large diameter; -- used by gold beaters. Knight. -- To enlarge an order or rule (Law), to extend the time for complying with it. Abbott. -- To enlarge one's self, to give f…

That which escapes attention or restraint; a mistake; an oversight; also, transgression. [Obs.] I should have been more accurate, and corrected all those former escapes. Burton.

To range at large, or without restraint. Bids his free soul expatiate in the skies. Pope.

requent converse, or association; unconstrained intercourse; freedom from ceremony and constraint; intimacy; as, to live in remarkable familiarity.

Given to pleasure seeking; disregardful of restraint; reckless; wild; dissipated; dissolute; as, a fast man; a fast liver. Thackeray. Fast and loose, now cohering, now disjoined; inconstant, esp. in the phrases to play at fast and loose, to play fast and loose, to act with giddy or reckless inconstancy or in a tricky m…

Anything that confines or restrains; a restraint. Passion's too fierce to be in fetters bound. Dryden.

The act of forcing; compulsion. [Obs.] It was imposed upon us by constraint; And will you count such forcement treachery J. Webster.

Dependent in form; conventional. Still in constraint your suffering sex remains, Or bound in formal or in real chains. Pope.

Exemption from constraint or oppression; freedom; liberty. [Obs.] Spenser.

Exempt from subjection to the will of others; not under restraint, control, or compulsion; able to follow one's own impulses, desires, or inclinations; determining one's own course of action; not dependent; at liberty. That which has the power, or not the power, to operate, is that alone which is or is not free. Locke.…

A will free from improper coercion or restraint. To come thus was I not constrained, but did On my free will. Shak.

In a free manner; without restraint or compulsion; abundantly; gratuitously. Of every tree of the garden thou mayst freely eat. Gen. ii. 16. Freely ye have received, freely give. Matt. x. 8. Freely they stood who stood, and fell who fell. Milton. Freely we serve Because we freely love. Milton.

Fleeing from pursuit, danger, restraint, etc., escaping, from service, duty etc.; as, a fugitive solder; a fugitive slave; a fugitive debtor. The fugitive Parthians follow. Shak. Can a fugitive daughter enjoy herself while her parents are in tear Richardson A libellous pamphlet of a fugitive physician. Sir H. Wotton.…

Full of spirit or natural fire; haughty; courageous; impetuous; not brooking restraint or opposition.