free-willers

Noun

free-willer (plural free-willers)

1. A person who believes that human beings have free will.
   • […] most of us are “free-willers.” We automatically assume we can shape the future, including our technology, in almost any fashion we wish, at least within the constraints of the natural environment. A small but vocal school of determinists, however, argues that we delude ourselves.1975, Andrew McClary, chapter 16, in Biology and Society: The Evolution of Man and His Technology, New York: Macmillan, pages 225–226

   Antonyms:

   determinist

2. A person who exercises free will.
   • The Americans are free-willers, fussy, self-asserting, buzzing all round creation.1847, Ralph Waldo Emerson, journal entry dated May 1847, in Stephen E. Whicher (ed.), Selections from Ralph Waldo Emerson: An Organic Anthology, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1957, p. 310
3. (derogatory, historical) A person belonging to a sect that rejected the doctrine of predestination.
   • Since all are by nature alike children of wrath, I would know of these free-willers, how some become the children of God, & beleevers, & some abyde vnder the wrath of God?1614, John Robinson, Of Religious Communion Private, & Publique, “Of the Baptism of Infants,” p. 96[a]

   Synonyms:

   Arminian, Pelagian, Remonstrant, Semipelagian

   Antonyms:

   Calvinist, predestinarian

4. (US, historical) An immigrant to the United States who, upon arrival, voluntarily became an indentured servant.
   • Persons in a state of servitude are under four distinct denominations: negroes, who are the entire property of their respective owners: convicts, who are transported from the mother country for a limited term: indented servants, who are engaged for five years previous to their leaving England; and...1770, William Eddis, letter dated 20 September, 1770 in Letters from America, Historical and Descriptive, comprising occurrences from 1769, to 1777, inclusive, London: for the author, 1792, pp. 63-64

   Synonyms:

   redemptioner