LIBERTY

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does liberty mean? 

• LIBERTY (noun)
  The noun LIBERTY has 5 senses:

1. immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence

2. freedom of choice

3. personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression

4. leave granted to a sailor or naval officer

5. an act of undue intimacy

  Familiarity information: LIBERTY used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• LIBERTY (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Immunity from arbitrary exercise of authority: political independence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

autonomy; liberty

Hypernyms ("liberty" is a kind of...):

independence; independency (freedom from control or influence of another or others)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "liberty"):

self-determination; self-government; self-rule (government of a political unit by its own people)

Derivation:

liberate (grant freedom to)

liberate (give equal rights to; of women and minorities)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Freedom of choice

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Context example:

at liberty to choose whatever occupation one wishes

Hypernyms ("liberty" is a kind of...):

freedom (the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "liberty"):

licence; license (freedom to deviate deliberately from normally applicable rules or practices (especially in behavior or speech))

latitude (freedom from normal restraints in conduct)

licence; license (excessive freedom; lack of due restraint)

discretion (freedom to act or judge on one's own)

run (unrestricted freedom to use)

Derivation:

liberate (grant freedom to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Personal freedom from servitude or confinement or oppression

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("liberty" is a kind of...):

freedom (the condition of being free; the power to act or speak or think without externally imposed restraints)

Derivation:

liberate (grant freedom to; free from confinement)

liberate (grant freedom to)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Leave granted to a sailor or naval officer

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

liberty; shore leave

Hypernyms ("liberty" is a kind of...):

leave; leave of absence (the period of time during which you are absent from work or duty)

Sense 5

Meaning:

An act of undue intimacy

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

familiarity; impropriety; indecorum; liberty

Hypernyms ("liberty" is a kind of...):

misbehavior; misbehaviour; misdeed (improper or wicked or immoral behavior)

 Context examples 

The liberty which her imagination had dared to take with the character of his father—could he ever forgive it?

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

For an instant I imagined that Bannister had taken the unpardonable liberty of examining my papers.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It restrained him, opposed the will of him toward personal liberty.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

It seemed to me that her mistress allowed her to take great liberties.

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

They had no chance to make a break for liberty in one of the boats.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I refused, as you can imagine, and asked my father how he could allow such a wretch to take such liberties with himself and his household.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

We may sometimes take greater liberties in November than in May.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Why did I not spend these sweet days of liberty with her?

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He writes in a different way entirely, telling me that he never sent any love letter at all, and is very sorry that my roguish sister, Jo, should take liberties with our names.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Why that, Master Copperfield, said Uriah, is, in fact, the confidence that I am going to take the liberty of reposing.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)