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LIBERAL
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
A person who favors a political philosophy of progress and reform and the protection of civil liberties
Synonyms:
liberal; liberalist; progressive
Classified under:
Hypernyms ("liberal" is a kind of...):
adult; grownup (a fully developed person from maturity onward)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "liberal"):
armchair liberal (a person of liberal ideals who takes no action to realize them)
latitudinarian (a person who is broad-minded and tolerant (especially in standards of religious belief and conduct))
neoliberal (a liberal who subscribes to neoliberalism)
pluralist (someone who believes that distinct ethnic or cultural or religious groups can exist together in society)
Whig (a member of the political party that urged social reform in 18th and 19th century England; was the opposition party to the Tories)
Antonym:
conservative (a person who is reluctant to accept changes and new ideas)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A person who favors an economic theory of laissez-faire and self-regulating markets
Classified under:
Nouns denoting people
Hypernyms ("liberal" is a kind of...):
adult; grownup (a fully developed person from maturity onward)
II. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Showing or characterized by broad-mindedness
Example:
tolerant of his opponent's opinions
Synonyms:
broad; large-minded; liberal; tolerant
Classified under:
Similar:
broad-minded (inclined to respect views and beliefs that differ from your own)
Derivation:
liberalness (an inclination to favor progress and individual freedom)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Tolerant of change; not bound by authoritarianism, orthodoxy, or tradition
Classified under:
Similar:
welfare-statist; welfarist (of or relating to a welfare state)
socialised; socialized (under group or government control)
progressive; reform-minded; reformist (favoring or promoting reform (often by government action))
neoliberal (having or showing belief in the need for economic growth in addition to traditional liberalistic values)
liberalistic (having or demonstrating belief in the essential goodness of man and the autonomy of the individual; favoring civil and political liberties, government by law with the consent of the governed, and protection from arbitrary authority)
civil-libertarian (having or showing active concern for protection of civil liberties protected by law)
Also:
left (of or belonging to the political or intellectual left)
Attribute:
ideology; political orientation; political theory (an orientation that characterizes the thinking of a group or nation)
Antonym:
conservative (resistant to change, particularly in relation to politics or religion)
Derivation:
liberalness (an inclination to favor progress and individual freedom)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Not literal
Example:
a free translation of the poem
Synonyms:
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
inexact (not exact)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Given or giving freely
Example:
her fond and openhanded grandfather
Synonyms:
big; bighearted; bounteous; bountiful; freehanded; giving; handsome; liberal; openhanded
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
generous (willing to give and share unstintingly)
Derivation:
liberality; liberalness (the trait of being generous in behavior and temperament)
Sense 5
Meaning:
Having political or social views favoring reform and progress
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
left (of or belonging to the political or intellectual left)
Derivation:
liberality; liberalness (an inclination to favor progress and individual freedom)
Context examples:
Henry deeply felt the misfortune of being debarred from a liberal education.
(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)
You have expended a great deal on my education, and have always been as liberal to me in all things as it was possible to be.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
A bachelor's degree in the liberal arts, usually awarded for studies in the social sciences or humanities.
(Bachelor of Arts, NCI Thesaurus)
It was acknowledged, however, that he was a liberal man, and did much good among the poor.
(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)
He was just entering into life, full of spirits, and with all the liberal dispositions of an eldest son, who feels born only for expense and enjoyment.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
Except the Sucklings and Bragges, there is not such another nursery establishment, so liberal and elegant, in all Mrs. Elton's acquaintance.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
It has been dignified and liberal.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
That they were false, the general had learnt from the very person who had suggested them, from Thorpe himself, whom he had chanced to meet again in town, and who, under the influence of exactly opposite feelings, irritated by Catherine's refusal, and yet more by the failure of a very recent endeavour to accomplish a reconciliation between Morland and Isabella, convinced that they were separated forever, and spurning a friendship which could be no longer serviceable, hastened to contradict all that he had said before to the advantage of the Morlands—confessed himself to have been totally mistaken in his opinion of their circumstances and character, misled by the rhodomontade of his friend to believe his father a man of substance and credit, whereas the transactions of the two or three last weeks proved him to be neither; for after coming eagerly forward on the first overture of a marriage between the families, with the most liberal proposals, he had, on being brought to the point by the shrewdness of the relator, been constrained to acknowledge himself incapable of giving the young people even a decent support.
(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)
I have had a little knowledge of their methods of doing business; and I am free to confess that they have very liberal notions, and are as likely to make desirable tenants as any set of people one should meet with.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
But this description, I confess, does by no means affect the British nation, who may be an example to the whole world for their wisdom, care, and justice in planting colonies; their liberal endowments for the advancement of religion and learning; their choice of devout and able pastors to propagate Christianity; their caution in stocking their provinces with people of sober lives and conversations from this the mother kingdom; their strict regard to the distribution of justice, in supplying the civil administration through all their colonies with officers of the greatest abilities, utter strangers to corruption; and, to crown all, by sending the most vigilant and virtuous governors, who have no other views than the happiness of the people over whom they preside, and the honour of the king their master.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
