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ledge, belief, action, etc.; to avow or acknowledge; to confess publicly; to own or admit freely. "Hear me profess sincerely." Shak. The best and wisest of them all professed To know this only, that he nothing knew. Milton.

One of the free, or nearly free, segments of a tapeworm. It contains both male and female reproductive organs, and is capable of a brief independent existence.

goods of foreign production as will restrict or prevent their importation; -- opposed to free trade. Writ of protection. (Law) (a) A writ by which the king formerly exempted a person from arrest; -- now disused. [Eng.] Blackstone. (b) A judicial writ issued to a person required to attend court, as party, juror, etc.,…

In the United States, a free primary, grammar, or high school maintained by the local government.

irring in a reverberatory furnace in the presence of oxidizing substances, by which it is freed from a portion of its carbon and other impurities. Puddling furnace, a reverberatory furnace in which cast iron is converted into wrought iron or into steel by puddling.

elastic, yellowish brown chaff, gathered in the Hawaiian Islands from the young fronds of free ferns of the genus Cibotium, chiefly C. Menziesii; -- used for stuffing mattresses, cushions, etc., and as an absorbent.

Separate from all heterogeneous or extraneous matter; free from mixture or combination; clean; mere; simple; unmixed; as, pure water; pure clay; pure air; pure compassion. The pure fetters on his shins great. Chaucer. A guinea is pure gold if it has in it no alloy. I. Watts.

To make pure or clear from material defilement, admixture, or imperfection; to free from extraneous or noxious matter; as, to purify liquors or metals; to purify the blood; to purify the air.

freedom from foreign admixture or deleterious matter; as, the purity of water, of wine, of drugs, of metals.

Free from noise or disturbance; hushed; still.

The quality or state of being quiet; freedom from noise, agitation, disturbance, or excitement; stillness; tranquillity; calmness. I would have peace and quietness. Shak.

Released from obligation, charge, penalty, etc.; free; clear; absolved; acquitted. Chaucer. The owner of the ox shall be quit. Ex. xxi. 28.

s. -- Ragged sailor (Bot.), prince's feather (Polygonum orientale). -- Ragged school, a free school for poor children, where they are taught and in part fed; -- a name given at first because they came in their common clothing. [Eng.] -- Rag"ged*ly, adv. -- Rag"ged*ness, n.

sacking, or state of being ransacked; pillage. [R.] Even your father's house Shall not be free fromransack. J. Webster.

ice paid for the redemption of a prisoner, or for goods captured by an enemy; payment for freedom from restraint, penalty, or forfeit. Thy ransom paid, which man from death redeems. Milton. His captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty. Sir J. Davies/.

To free (a pattern) in a mold by light blows on the pattern, so as to facilitate its removal.

An early ripening fruit, especially a kind of freestone peach.

anner; with precipitation. He that doth anything rashly, must do it willingly; for he was free to deliberate or not. L'Estrange.

To render rational; to free from radical signs or quantities.

To stretch out the hand. Goddess humane, reach, then, and freely taste! Milton.