make free of

make free of

English

Verb

make free of (third-person singular simple present makes free of, present participle making free of, simple past and past participle made free of)

1. To use something that belongs to another person (often with permission)
   • 1892, Grace E. King, "Bayou L'Ombre," in S. T. Joshi (ed.), Civil War Memories: Lost Tales of the Civil War, Thomas Nelson, 2000,

     The chickens and dogs were making free of the galleries, and the hogs wallowed in peaceful immunity underneath.

   • 1967, Berechiah ben Natronai ha-Nakdan, Fables of a Jewish Aesop, translated by Moses Hadas, Jaffrey, NH: David R. Godine, 2001, p. 110

     There she saw many mice making free of wheat and barley; six measures of barley they meted out to themselves to bring to their holes, until they had enough and to spare.

   • 1979, Tanith Lee, Death's Master, New York: Daw Books, p. 23, Book 1, Part 1,

     […] a young woman curtsied to him. "Please make free of my home," said she.

   • 1981, Nadine Gordimer, July's People, Penguin,

     He did not know everyone knew he had a gun; that the children who made free of every hut as the cockroaches knew everything and chattered all.

See also

• make free with