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Voluntary   /vˈɑləntɛri/   Listen
adjective
Voluntary  adj.  
1.
Proceeding from the will; produced in or by an act of choice. "That sin or guilt pertains exclusively to voluntary action is the true principle of orthodoxy."
2.
Unconstrained by the interference of another; unimpelled by the influence of another; not prompted or persuaded by another; done of his or its own accord; spontaneous; acting of one's self, or of itself; free. "Our voluntary service he requires." "She fell to lust a voluntary prey."
3.
Done by design or intention; intentional; purposed; intended; not accidental; as, if a man kills another by lopping a tree, it is not voluntary manslaughter.
4.
(Physiol.) Of or pertaining to the will; subject to, or regulated by, the will; as, the voluntary motions of an animal, such as the movements of the leg or arm (in distinction from involuntary motions, such as the movements of the heart); the voluntary muscle fibers, which are the agents in voluntary motion.
5.
Endowed with the power of willing; as, man is a voluntary agent. "God did not work as a necessary, but a voluntary, agent, intending beforehand, and decreeing with himself, that which did outwardly proceed from him."
6.
(Law) Free; without compulsion; according to the will, consent, or agreement, of a party; without consideration; gratuitous; without valuable consideration.
7.
(Eccl.) Of or pertaining to voluntaryism; as, a voluntary church, in distinction from an established or state church.
Voluntary affidavit or Voluntary oath (Law), an affidavit or oath made in an extrajudicial matter.
Voluntary conveyance (Law), a conveyance without valuable consideration.
Voluntary escape (Law), the escape of a prisoner by the express consent of the sheriff.
Voluntary jurisdiction. (Eng. Eccl. Law) See Contentious jurisdiction, under Contentious.
Voluntary waste. (Law) See Waste, n., 4.
Synonyms: See Spontaneous.


noun
Voluntary  n.  (pl. voluntaries)  
1.
One who engages in any affair of his own free will; a volunteer. (R.)
2.
(Mus.) A piece played by a musician, often extemporarily, according to his fancy; specifically, an organ solo played before, during, or after divine service.
3.
(Eccl.) One who advocates voluntaryism.





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Voluntary" Quotes from Famous Books



... fled immediatly, leauing as much as the fire had spared to be the reward of our mens paines. Here was taken among others one Vincent Fonseca a Portugall, Purser of the carak, with two others, one an Almaine and the second a Low-dutchman, canoniers: who refusing to make any voluntary report of those things, which were demanded of them, had the torture threatened, the feare whereof at the last wrested from them this intelligence, that within fifteene dayes three other greater caraks ...
— The Principal Navigations, Voyages, Traffiques, and Discoveries of - The English Nation, Vol. 11 • Richard Hakluyt
... under the windows of neighbors in whose rooms string-music was heard of hot summer evenings. On every occasion his nature testified to its lively abhorrence of tone, and once he was violently thrust forth from a church by an excited sexton. Racah had whistled derisively at the feebly executed voluntary of the organist. An old friend of the family declared that the boy should be trained as a music critic—he hated music so intensely. Racah's father would arch his meagre eyebrows and crisply say, "My son shall become a priest." "But ...
— Melomaniacs • James Huneker
... it, however, is a different thing. It is based, primarily, on freedom. It is a natural and voluntary grouping of energies to secure results beneficial ...
— Anarchism and Other Essays • Emma Goldman
... complete and well-bred self-possession, and the manner of her quietly assured self-introduction. She had her card all ready that should explain for her; and to the servant's reply that Madam Mucklegrand was in, she responded by moving forward with only enough of voluntary hesitation to allow him to indicate to her the reception room, at the door of which she gave him the ...
— Real Folks • Mrs. A. D. T. Whitney
... he made first awkwardly and shyly certain twists and turns, finding no terms in which to unfold his case. And the lady was also perfectly silent, since she was outrageously struck with the blindness, deafness and voluntary paralysis of the lord of Braguelongne; and said to herself, walking by the side of this delicate morsel, a young innocent of whom she did not think, little imagining that this cat so well provided with young bacon could ...
— Droll Stories, Volume 2 • Honore de Balzac


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