Definitions
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A mercenary soldier during the middle ages, especially one of some rank, mounted and thoroughly armed and having followers or attendants. (Compare
lance .) They were most conspicuous in Italy, where they were calledcondottieri . Also calledfree companion . - noun Hence A person who acts upon his own will and pleasure, with little regard for the conventionalities of life; especially, one who uses great freedom in speech or writing, as in indiscriminate attack upon or objurgation of all who disagree with him.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb to work on a free-lance basis; to work as a freelancer.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective serving for wages in a foreign army
- adjective working for yourself
- noun a writer or artist who sells services to different employers without a long-term contract with any of them
Etymologies
Sorry, no etymologies found.
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Examples
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For around $400, I would estimate that you could find a respectable free-lance artist to do a sample of five pages.
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RIM directed David Sanchez, a free-lance developer in Sunnyvale, Calif., to a new software package that would let him use common tools for building Web applications to create BlackBerry apps as well.
RIM Tries Harder on Apps Phred Dvorak 2010
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"Big homes, you can see the money," says Raisa Chernina , a free-lance Russian television producer with a thick accent who is ferrying me around on a recent trip to the neighborhood.
'Russian Dolls' Exposed Sumathi Reddy 2011
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Convinced that the movie would redeem me, I swallowed Elizabeth's mandate and dutifully investigated free-lance line editors online.
Rex Pickett: The 'Sideways' Publishing Saga -- The St. Martin's Press Nightmare (Part I) Rex Pickett 2012
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The term freelance was first used by Sir Walter Scott to describe a medieval mercenary warrior, (a “free-lance”) in his novel Ivanhoe.
The Nipawin Journal reports on my reading there last week… ewillett 2009
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Pennington and his family were subject to prolonged terror in a country where, for blacks, there was little effective difference between policemen and free-lance thugs.
Eloquence And Abolition Sarah Ruden 2011
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Fox News has reportedly fired free-lance gossip columnist Roger Friedman after he downloaded and reviewed a stolen copy of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.
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In an appearance Thursday on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, it was revealed the Emmy Award-winning actor had been a free-lance artist in the 1970s and '80s, working for The Boston Globe.
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I need to see my accountant once a month because I'm still working (on a free-lance basis) and have to pay taxes every month.
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Convinced that the movie would redeem me, I swallowed Elizabeth's mandate and dutifully investigated free-lance line editors online.
Rex Pickett: The 'Sideways' Publishing Saga -- The St. Martin's Press Nightmare (Part I) Rex Pickett 2012
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