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Free rein   /fri reɪn/   Listen
Free rein

noun
1.
The removal of constraints.  Synonym: play.  "They gave full play to the artist's talent"






WordNet 3.0 © 2010 Princeton University








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"Free rein" Quotes from Famous Books



... all circuit riders and venerated leaders of the people of the mountainsides. They traveled the mountains on horseback, constantly exposed to hardships, and they labored devoutly without consideration of the personal cost. It was the custom for these itinerant ministers to give free rein to their horses and read as they rode the mountain-paths, stopping for a prayer at every home they reached. Protracted meetings were held in almost every community they visited, for many months would pass before they returned. Funeral services would be held for all ...
— Sergeant York And His People • Sam Cowan

... the girls to refrain from trying to get even with the raiders. Eleanor knew that if she gave positive orders that no such attempt was to be made she would be obeyed, but she felt that this was an occasion when it would be better to let the girls have free rein. She knew enough about them to understand that a smouldering fire of dislike, were it allowed to burn, would do more harm than an outbreak, and she could only hope that they would not take the matter ...
— The Camp Fire Girls in the Mountains - or Bessie King's Strange Adventure • Jane L. Stewart

... evidently had been able to consume three meals a day and give some thought to her costumes. Her smile under the picture hat was coquettish, if not bold. The special article, signed by a lady reporter whose sympathies were by no means concealed and whose talents were given free rein, related how the white-haired mother had wept tears of joy; how Miss Nealy herself had been awhile too overcome to speak, and then had recovered sufficiently to express her gratitude to the twelve gentlemen who had vindicated the honour of American womanhood. Mr. Ferris, she reiterated, was a ...
— The Crossing • Winston Churchill

... made herself as small as possible. She had not dared move, but Casimir did not even turn his eyes in her direction, and almost at once he went out, giving his arm to his uncle. Then she was able to give free rein to her thoughts. How severe M. Vulfran was with his nephew, but what a disagreeable, horrid youth was that nephew! If they had any affection for one another it certainly was not apparent. Why was it? Why wasn't this nephew kind to his old ...
— Nobody's Girl - (En Famille) • Hector Malot

... sunken rocks and through tangled weeds of the improbable in a way that would have done credit to a Munchausen of older date. As for Jack, he let him run on. One plank in the platform of his hospitality was to give every guest a free rein. ...
— A Gentleman Vagabond and Some Others • F. Hopkinson Smith

... had been reported by Canquoelle-Peyrade, the police-agent. [Cesar Birotteau.] Three years later he lost his wife, who had brought him, for dowry, an income of six thousand francs, representing exactly twice his personal assets. Living from this time at the rue de Fouarre, Popinot was able to give free rein to the exercise of charity, a virtue that had become a passion with him. At the urgent instance of Octave de Bauvan, Jean-Jules Popinot, in order to aid Honorine, the Count's wife, sent her a pretended commission-merchant, probably Felix Gaudissart, ...
— Repertory Of The Comedie Humaine, Complete, A — Z • Anatole Cerfberr and Jules Franois Christophe

... his readers, the scientific probabilities of the universe beyond our earth, the actual knowledge so hard won by our astronomers! Other authors who, since Verne, have told of trips through the planetary and stellar universe have given free rein to fancy, to dreams of what might be found. Verne has endeavored to impart only what is ...
— Off on a Comet • Jules Verne

... me," he shouted, looking back for a moment, and then, with a wild yell, he gave his horse free rein, and on we dashed close to ...
— The Gold Hunter's Adventures - Or, Life in Australia • William H. Thomes

... leapt within me and to give free rein to the riot of my joy I put on my hat and cloak to go ...
— The Woman Thou Gavest Me - Being the Story of Mary O'Neill • Hall Caine

... knew the Franciscan had suspected in him such tender feelings, no one had believed that under his rude and rough exterior there might beat a heart. Unable to go on, he withdrew from the girl's side, weeping like a child, and went outside under the favorite vines of Maria Clara's balcony to give free rein to his grief. ...
— The Social Cancer - A Complete English Version of Noli Me Tangere • Jose Rizal

... Russian temperament to declare exactly what it felt, to give free rein to its moods and dislikes and discomforts. The weather was beginning to be fiercely hot, there were many rumours of cholera and typhus—we, all of us, lost colour and appetite, slept badly and suffered ...
— The Dark Forest • Hugh Walpole

... eyes, amazed at my own find, and laugh for joy. Then I begin to whisper; some one might spy on me, and I intended to keep my discovery a secret. I entered into the joyous frenzy of hunger. I was empty and free from pain, and I gave free rein ...
— Hunger • Knut Hamsun

... would be a contributing editor of the New Dawn, having as her special department the release of woman from her age-long slavery to certain restraints that now made her talked unpleasantly about if she dared give her soul free rein. This lady caused Sharon to wonder about ...
— The Wrong Twin • Harry Leon Wilson

... instant the hunter swerved from his course and raced for the Bull, loading his gun as the Cayuse swung along under a free rein. Shag chuckled softly as he spread his great quarters, and hung his ...
— The Outcasts • W. A. Fraser

... representation, the rotten boroughs, as those in decay were called, and the pocket boroughs, a name applied to those which were the property of individuals, opened the way for shameless corruption. Where the electorate was small and the secret ballot unknown bribery had free rein. Seats were openly bought and sold. As early as 1770 the elder Pitt (Lord Chatham) had placed his finger upon this ailing spot in the English body politic, and had said, "Before the end of this century, either the Parliament ...
— Ten Englishmen of the Nineteenth Century • James Richard Joy

... talent as tribune and publicist, as comedian and tragedian, showed itself to perfection. He gave a free rein to his imagination in his placards, in which he affected the proverbial language of the moujik, made himself a peasant, more than a peasant, in his eccentric style, to excite patriotism. He published pamphlets against the French, and the coarser his language ...
— Napoleon's Campaign in Russia Anno 1812 • Achilles Rose

... Nell retreated and sank weak and trembling on the miserable cot, and for the next few minutes gave free rein to her alarm ...
— Dyke Darrel the Railroad Detective - Or, The Crime of the Midnight Express • Frank Pinkerton



Words linked to "Free rein" :   play, freedom



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