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To grant (one) express license or liberty to do an act; to authorize; to give leave; -- followed by an infinitive. Thou art permitted to speak for thyself. Acis xxvi. 1.

ights, rights appertaining to the person; as, the rights of a personal security, personal liberty, and private property. -- Personal tithes. See under Tithe. -- Personal verb (Gram.), a verb which is modified or inflected to correspond with the three persons.

rd, treat, or represent as a person; to represent as a rational being. The poets take the liberty of personifying inanimate things. Chesterfield.

assumed to have been conical in shape. It has been adopted in modern art as the so-called liberty cap, or cap of liberty.

Hence, liberty of acting; room for enlargement or display; scope; as, to give full play to mirth. Play actor, an actor of dramas. Prynne. -- Play debt, a gambling debt. Arbuthnot. -- Play pleasure, idle amusement. [Obs.] Bacon. -- A play upon words, the use of a word in such a way as to be capable of double meaning;…

avenly stranger, please to taste These bounties. Milton. That he would please 8give me my liberty. Swift.

point of religion and in point of honor. Bacon. Shalt thou dispute With Him the points of liberty Milton.

persons, is the power of the state to protect the public against the abuse of individual liberty, that is, to restrain the individual in the exercise of his rights when such exercise becomes a danger to the community. The tendency of judicial and popular usage is towards this narrower definition.

ential mood, or mode (Gram.), that form of the verb which is used to express possibility, liberty, power, will, obligation, or necessity, by the use of may, can, must, might, could, would, or should; as, I may go; he can write.

Primarily, liberty of converse; intercourse; hence, a certificate, given after compliance with quarantine regulations, permitting a ship to land passengers and crew; -- a term used particularly in the south of Europe.

, a precarious state of health; precarious fortunes. "Intervals of partial and precarious liberty." Macaulay.

cylinder, instead of resting on a flat bed. Hydrostatic press. See under Hydrostatic. -- Liberty of the press, the free right of publishing books, pamphlets, or papers, without previous restraint or censorship, subject only to punishment for libelous, seditious, or morally pernicious matters. -- Press bed, a bed that…

d by violence. More pity that the eagle should be mewed, While kites and buzzards prey at liberty. Shak. To prey on or upon. (a) To take prey from; to despoil; to pillage; to rob. Shak. (b) To seize as prey; to take for food by violence; to seize and devour. Shak. (c) To wear away gradually; to cause to waste or pine a…

A place where persons are confined, or restrained of personal liberty; hence, a place or state o Bring my soul out of prison, that I may praise thy name. Ps. cxlii. 7. The tyrant Æolus, . . . With power imperial, curbs the struggling winds, And sounding tempests in dark prisons binds. Dryden.

something; not positive; negative. Privative blessings, blessings of immunity, safeguard, liberty, and integrity. Jer. Taylor.

; to publish abroad; to promulgate; to declare; as, to proclaim war or peace. To proclaim liberty to the captives. Isa. lxi. 1. For the apparel oft proclaims the man. Shak. Throughout the host proclaim A solemn council forthwith to be held. Milton.

to rove; to wander; as, to ramble about the city; to ramble over the world. He that is at liberty to ramble in perfect darkness, what is his liberty better than if driven up and down as a bubble by the wind Locke.

rom death redeems. Milton. His captivity in Austria, and the heavy ransom he paid for his liberty. Sir J. Davies/.

The power or liberty of passing back. Shak.

To give joi to; to make joyful; to gladden. I me rejoysed of my liberty. Chaucer. While she, great saint, rejoices heaven. Prior. Were he [Cain] alive, it would rejoice his soul to see what mischief it had made. Arbuthnot.