FREE HAND

Pronunciation (US):

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does free hand mean? 

• FREE HAND (noun)
  The noun FREE HAND has 1 sense:

1. freedom to do as you see fit

  Familiarity information: FREE HAND used as a noun is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• FREE HAND (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Freedom to do as you see fit

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

blank check; free hand

Context example:

many have doubts about giving him a free hand to attack

Hypernyms ("free hand" is a kind of...):

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

 Context examples 

I had a line about my waist and followed obediently after the sea-cook, who held the loose end of the rope, now in his free hand, now between his powerful teeth.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Latimer reached down with his free hand.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He seemed faint and dizzy and put out his free hand while he reeled, as though seeking support against the air.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

“My woman, my one small woman,” I said, my free hand petting her shoulder in the way all lovers know though never learn in school.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His free hand went to my throat, and in that moment I knew the bitterest foretaste of death earned by one’s own idiocy.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)