Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun One who acts without moral restraint; a dissolute person.
- noun One who defies established religious precepts; a freethinker.
- adjective Morally unrestrained; dissolute.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun At Aberdeen University, a free scholar; one who has no bursary. See
bursary , 2. - noun In Roman history, a freedman; a person manumitted or set free from legal servitude.
- noun A member of a Jewish synagogue mentioned in Acts vi. 9, probably composed of descendants of Jewish freedmen who had been expelled from Rome by Tiberius, and had returned to Palestine.
- noun A freeman of an incorporate town or city.
- noun One who is free from or does not submit to restraint; one who is free in thought and action.
- noun One who holds loose views with regard to the laws of religion or morality; an irreligious person; a free-thinker.
- noun [capitalized] A member of a pantheistic, antinomian sect which existed about 1530 in France and neighboring countries.
- noun A man given to the indulgence of lust; one who leads a dissolute, licentious life; a rake; a debauchee.
- Free; unrestrained.
- Licentious; dissolute; not under the restraint of or in accord with law or religion: as, libertine principles.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun (Rom. Antiq.) A manumitted slave; a freedman; also, the son of a freedman.
- noun (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect of Anabaptists, in the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century, who rejected many of the customs and decencies of life, and advocated a community of goods and of women.
- noun One free from restraint; one who acts according to his impulses and desires; now, specifically, one who gives rein to lust; a rake; a debauchee.
- noun Obsolescent A defamatory name for a freethinker.
- adjective obsolete Free from restraint; uncontrolled.
- adjective Dissolute; licentious; profligate; loose in morals.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun historical Someone freed from
slavery inAncient Rome ; afreedman . - noun One who is
freethinking inreligious matters. - noun Someone (especially a man) who takes no notice of
moral laws, especially those involvingsexual propriety ; someone loose in morals; apleasure - seeker . - adjective
Dissolute ,licentious ,profligate ; loose inmorals .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective unrestrained by convention or morality
- noun a dissolute person; usually a man who is morally unrestrained
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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To say that all libertarians are libertine is not factual.
Libertarian Manifesto, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty 2009
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Now one day a certain libertine of Rājagaha, in the prime of youth, was standing in the Jīvaka Mango-grove, and saw her going to siesta; and feeling enamoured, he barred her way, soliciting her to sensual pleasures.
Psalms of the Sisters Caroline Augusta Foley Rhys 1909
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At the word libertine, the judge, the whole court, and the audience started; but it was presently clear the witness meant that the questioner was abusing his legal privileges, though the people present interpreted it another way, and quite rightly.
The Project Gutenberg Complete Works of Gilbert Parker Gilbert Parker 1897
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At the word libertine, the judge, the whole court, and the audience started; but it was presently clear the witness meant that the questioner was abusing his legal privileges, though the people present interpreted it another way, and quite rightly.
You Never Know Your Luck; being the story of a matrimonial deserter. Complete Gilbert Parker 1897
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At the word libertine, the judge, the whole court, and the audience started; but it was presently clear the witness meant that the questioner was abusing his legal privileges, though the people present interpreted it another way, and quite rightly.
You Never Know Your Luck; being the story of a matrimonial deserter. Volume 1. Gilbert Parker 1897
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Then Alice, on her part, hardly knew even what was implied by the word libertine or seducer.
Woodstock 1855
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Then Alice, on her part, hardly knew even what was implied by the word libertine or seducer.
Woodstock; or, the Cavalier Walter Scott 1801
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For if the French can be regarded affectionately for anything it is their liberal -- for which some have read "libertine" -- attitude toward sex and things sexy: the very connotation of French evokes Ooh-la-la images of naughty goings-on.
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On the contrary, the libertine is the type of hero who receives the commendatory quips of erotic dames and the questionable interest of hysterical maidens.
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On the one hand, it sought to suppress and uproot the sensuous, and thus became strictly ascetic (imitation of Christ as motive of asceticism; [360] Christ and the Apostles represented as ascetics); [361] on the other hand, it treated the sensuous element as indifferent, and so became libertine, that is, conformed to the world.
History of Dogma, Volume 1 (of 7) Adolph Harnack 1890
brtom commented on the word libertine
Must I confess that Charles—that libertine, that extravagant, that bankrupt in fortune and reputation—that he it is for whom I am thus anxious and malicious, and to gain whom I would sacrifice every thing?
Sheridan, School for Scandal
January 5, 2008
bodhi commented on the word libertine
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z9J8RIzX_vA
October 2, 2008
RevBrently commented on the word libertine
From p. 83 of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby: "Angry as I was, as we all were, I was tempted to laugh whenever he opened his mouth. The transition from libertine to prig was so complete."
September 29, 2012