free
verb/friː/
/friː/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they free | /friː/ /friː/ |
| he / she / it frees | /friːz/ /friːz/ |
| past simple freed | /friːd/ /friːd/ |
| past participle freed | /friːd/ /friːd/ |
| -ing form freeing | /ˈfriːɪŋ/ /ˈfriːɪŋ/ |
- to allow somebody to leave prison or somewhere they have been kept against their will synonym release
- free somebody The hijackers agreed to free a further ten hostages.
- By the end of May nearly 100 of an estimated 2 000 political prisoners had been freed.
- She led an operation that freed 70 trafficked workers.
- free somebody from something They succeeded in freeing their friends from prison.
Extra Examples- The court ruled that he should be freed on bail of $50 000.
- The woman was freed by the Appeal Court this morning.
- They're launching a campaign to free the three men.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + free- struggle to
- try to
- manage to
- …
- from
- of
- be freed on bail
- to move somebody/something that is caught or fixed on something synonym release
- free somebody/something/yourself She struggled to free herself.
- A good kick finally freed the door.
- free somebody/something/yourself from something Three people were freed from the wreckage.
- He managed to free his arms from their bonds.
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryverb + free- struggle to
- try to
- manage to
- …
- from
- of
- be freed on bail
- to remove something that is unpleasant or not wanted from somebody/something synonym rid
- free somebody/something of somebody/something These exercises help free the body of tension.
- The police are determined to free the town of violent crime.
- free somebody/something from something The centre aims to free young people from dependency on drugs.
Extra Examples- The system freed teachers from the constraints of the old curriculum.
- If the tax is lifted the government will be freed from its obligation to buy goods from those countries.
- Counselling may help you to free yourself from the past.
- He had finally been freed of his responsibilities.
- to make somebody/something available for a particular purpose
- free somebody/something (for something) We freed time each week for a project meeting.
- free somebody/something up (for something) The government has promised to free up more resources for education.
- to give somebody the extra time to do something that they want to do
- free somebody to do something Winning the prize freed him to paint full-time.
- free somebody up (to do something) Using the content management software frees up staff.
prisoner
somebody/something trapped
remove something
make available
Word OriginOld English frēo (adjective), frēon (verb), of Germanic origin; related to Dutch vrij and German frei, from an Indo-European root meaning ‘to love’, shared by friend.
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free