Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a cheap brothel.

1796		Sporting Mag. May VIII 108/1: In the court of Common Pleas, an action was lately tried – Fano versus Kelly – Ladies of the Free and Easy under the Rose. [...] Mrs. Kelly had thrown the contents of a glass in the face of Mrs. Fano.
1857		J.E. Ritchie Night Side of London 49: Almost every house you come to is a public-house, or something worse. Here there is a free-and-easy after the theatres are over; there a lounge open all night for the entertainment of bullies and prostitutes.
1861		(con. 1840s–50s) H. Mayhew London Labour and London Poor I 259/1: One of the showfuls; a dicky one; a free-and-easy.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 21 Sept. n.p.: [headline] A New York Merchant Quartering at a ‘Free and Easy’.
1880		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 10 Jan. 15/1: This ‘free and easy’ which they consider a sort of [illeg.] headquarters for their operations.
1899		H.E. Hamblen Yarns of Bucko Mate 49: I took a lively interest in the sparring matches that I witnessed on the stages of the ‘free-and-easies’.
1943		J. Mitchell McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (2001) 128: On some of the side streets there were brothels in nearly every house; Dutch refers to them as ‘free-and-easies’.

2. a convivial gathering for singing, at which one may drink, smoke etc.

1802		Sporting Mag. Mar. XIX 356/1: The following hand-bill [...] for assembling a Free and Easy Club, at the early hour of nine in the morning [etc.].
[1811		Lex. Balatronicum n.p.: free and easy Johns A society which met at the Hole in the Wall, Fleet-street, to tipple porter, and sing bawdry].
1821–6		‘Bill Truck’ Man o’ War’s Man (1843) 43: No formality there you’d ever see! – / The free and azy would so amaze ye.
1822		Egan Life and Adventures of Samuel Hayward 69: At the ‘Free and Easies,’ when inclined for a look in and a bit of a chaunt, he was never backwards in throwing off a stave with applause.
1835		N.-Y. Daily Advertiser 21 Aug. 2/4: [A man attended] a Free and Easy, at the Brown Jug in Pearl street, near Elm, and spent the night until after one o’clock, in drinking and singing.
1839		Macaulay ‘Church and State’ in Misc. Writings (1852) 382/2: Clubs of all ranks, from those which have lined Pall-Mall and St. James’s Street with their palaces, down to the free-and-easy which meets in the shabby parlour of the village inn .
1843		R.S. Surtees Handley Cross (1854) 497: He’s president of our free-and-easy, chairman of the incorporated society of Good Fellows.
1852		in G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes I 63: Mr. A Gray begs to remind [...] the lovers of harmony that he has re-opened his Free and Easy on Saturday evenings.
1855		Broadway Belle (NY) 29 Jan. n.p.: Goldsmith sings at free-and-easys.
1859		G.A. Sala Twice Round the Clock 378: This is no penny-gaff, no twopenny theatre [...] not so much as a ‘free-and-easy’ or a ‘sixpenny-hop.’.
1860		R. Nicholson Rogue’s Progress (1966) 42: Wednesday evenings were devoted to a free-and-easy, sing-song, harmonic meeting, or whatever it might be termed.
1866		Night Side of N.Y. 24: On the outside of this sanguinary lantern, in a reflex of white letters, were the magic words, ‘Free And Easy’.
1874		J. Greenwood Wilds of London (1881) 249: Likewise there is a notification that a ‘free and easy’ takes place every Monday and Saturday.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 7 Feb. 12/2: In the Saturday night’s Free-and-Easy, one brother said that one night he got so drunk that he fell into a gutter, and it commenced raining, and as the rain-water got into his mouth he cried out, ’Oh, landlord, you are changing the drink!’.
1894		G. du Maurier Trilby 228: He was especially fond of frequenting sing-songs, or ‘free-and-easies,’ where good hard-working fellows met of an evening to relax and smoke and drink and sing.
1900		Flynt & Walton Powers That Prey 250: The scribes drifted into a ‘Free and Easy,’ where men and women sing songs, and then pass their hats and bonnets around for pennies and ha’pennies.
1900		E.W. Rogers [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Red and The White and The Blue 🎵 At his little free-and-easies he says, Them wiv oof to spend, / Shove it in yer plite for Tommy out in Africa, old friend.
1922		Hull Dly Mail 28 Jan. 4/5: The ‘Men’s Free and Easy’ Meetings [...] have proved a popular item in the social activities of the parish.
1933		(ref. to 1900s) J.B. Booth Pink Parade 124: Wilkie Bard [...] in his early days sang at a small free-and-easy at Morecambe.

3. a prostitute.

1802		Sporting Mag. Jan. XIX 219/1: Should the female [...] be one of the free and easy, she will perhaps imperiously demand reparation.
1879		London Life 24 May 3/1: [A] large proportion of showily dressed young women, of the Free and Easy sort.

4. a public house where a degree of sexual immorality is permitted.

1879

London Life 7 June 6/2: [There is] very little Fun, except for the agreeable landlords of the drinking free-and-easys.

5. a burlesque or ‘tableau’ show.

1927

(ref. to 1890s) H.C. Brown In the Golden Nineties 177: The cellar ‘free and easies’.