free adj.
SE in slang uses
In compounds
see separate entry.
(US) of a man, to wear no underwear.
Tattoo of a Naked Lady 229: I wasn’t wearing any underwear – freeballin’ for the hell of it. |
see separate entries.
of a woman, esp. a potential prostitute, to have sexual intercourse without charging.
Sl. and Its Analogues III 67/1: Free-fucking [...] the favour gratis. | ||
in Erotic Muse (1992) 163: Down in cunt valley where gizzum does flow, / The cocksuckers work for a nickel a blow; / There lived pretty Charlotte, the girl I adore, / My free-fucking, cock-sucking cowpunchers’ whore. | ||
(con. 1960s) Black Gangster (1991) 70: I’d rather see you selling your ass than out free-fuckin’. |
(US) a prison.
Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 90: free hotel A jail. | ||
‘Back Door Stuff’ 29 Jan. [synd. col.] Boot Nose narrowly missed getting a ‘free home’ for 30 days when he tried to peddle some Creeping Sam to the guests. | ||
(con. 1920s) Monkey Off My Back (1972) 46: One of the bigtime racketeers who was doing time at the ‘Free Hotel’. |
(orig. Aus.) a wind-powered electricity generator, especially in the Outback.
letter in Western Mail (Perth) 6 Feb. 31/3: I have lately acquired a generator. It has at one time been in a car. At present I want to use it for a free light, but the charging is unsatisfactory, . | ||
Age (Melbourne) 16 Apr. 8/7: [H]e has no sooner grounded his plane than he is finding some fresh activity [...] repairing a radio set, or a free light. | ||
Jargodin 26: A thirty-two volt wind generator, (called free lights), created power for lights, washing machine and iron. | ||
(ref. to 1940s) | Realities of an ‘Orkney Way’ 74: Even after the installation of mains electricity, small handmade wind turbines were used. One woman in her 70s recalled how many people she knew had what she called ‘free lights’ that ran off the small turbine.
see separate entries.
1. (US) an arrest.
Strictly Business (1915) 268: Are you afraid you’ll get a free ride? | ‘Past One at Rooney’s’ in||
Wise-crack Dict. 8/1: Free ride – Social trip with the police. |
2. an easy time; in cite 1977 immunity from prosecution .
Stonewall 107: Dean was too deeply involved, too culpable, too big a fish, to get a ‘free ride’—total immunity from prosecution. | ||
Prince of the City 252: ‘Give me the same deal you gave Leuci, and sure I’ll cooperate. Just give me the same free ride he’s getting’. | ||
(con. early 1950s) L.A. Confidential 39: He’d been financing his free ride ever since; unless Hudgens had 10/24/47 on paper he was safe. | ||
Rivethead (1992) 75: Christ, you boys today are gettin’ a free ride. | ||
Monster (1994) 157: Survival of the fittest continued to rule our existence. No one got a free ride. | ||
WITSEC 151: While the mobsters were entitled to lifetime protection [...] they’d never been promised a free ride on the government’s back. |
3. a prostitute.
CB Slanguage. |
4. an unpaid sexual encounter with a prostitute.
How to Shoot Friends 120: There was this whore [...] who picked me up and got me back to a hotel room. It was a free ride, so I didn’t mind. | ||
Casino Moon 159: ‘‘You ain’t gonna charge me, right?’ ‘Nope, this one’s a free ride,’ she said in a tired voice. |
the unpaid-for services of a prostitute.
Jailhouse Jargon and Street Sl. [unpub. ms.]. |
the inadvertent revelation by a woman of her body, in all or part, glimpsed by a passing individual usu. a man.
5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases. | ||
Tattoo of a Naked Lady 97: High in his cab, he couldn’t miss seeing Bunny’s free show. | ||
‘Bastards of Apathy’ in ThugLit Sept./Oct. [ebook] [H]is first impression was: crack whore squatting to piss. [...] Maybe he would get a free show. | ||
(con. 1991-94) City of Margins 121: Ava takes a quick glance at the woman’s breasts. [...] The woman notices. ‘Ain’t a free show,’ she says. |
the world outside prison.
Down These Mean Streets (1970) 254: I wished I could stop thinking about the free side. The free side—dig that! In the beginning I’d said ‘outside’; now I said ‘free side,’ just like a con. | ||
Killing Time 177: You was damn lucky to ever see the free side of life I can damn well tell you that. There was a lot of them that didn’t. | ||
Prison Sl. 107: Free World also Free Side Anything outside the confines of an institution. |
see separate entries.
a prostitute, a promiscuous girl or woman .
Peeping Tom (London) 19 73: [cartoon caption] the guilty husband. Having brought a Free-trader to his bed, is interrupted by his wife. |
women’s knickers, open at the crotch.
(ref. to 1920s) Lily on the Dustbin 38: ‘Free traders’ [...] comprised knee-length calico pants trimmed with lace but, instead of a front and back seam, were open from the front waist to the back waist, and fastened around the waist by long tapes. It meant you could use the toilet without pulling your pants down. |
see separate entries.
In phrases
a phr. describing an impotent husband.
Proverbs (2nd edn) 191: He’s free of Fumbler’s-hall Spoken of a man that cannot get his wife with child. | ||
, , | Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue. | |
Lex. Balatronicum. | ||
Maledicta IV:2 (Winter) 188: The old man, when, alas, free of Fumbler’s Hall, is said to have no more ink in the pen or no more lead in the pencil. |
see under bush n.1