lib'ral

Adjective

liberal (comparative more liberal, superlative most liberal)

1. Generous; permitting liberty; willing to give unsparingly.
   • He was liberal with his compliments.

   Synonyms:

   charitable, frolic, munificent, fouthy, free, openhanded, generous, giftful, giving, goodwilly

   Antonyms:

   authoritarian

2. Ample, abundant; generous in quantity.
   • Add a liberal sprinkling of salt.

   Synonyms:

   good-sized, hefty, prodigious, ample, big, exceeding, cosmic, bodacious, broad, commodious

3. Widely open to new ideas, willing to depart from established opinions or conventions; permissive.
   • Her parents had liberal ideas about child-rearing.

   Synonyms:

   broad-minded, open-minded, tolerant, avuncular, catholic, forbearing, indulgent, latitudinarian, laissez faire, lenient

   Antonyms:

   close-minded, conservative

4. (obsolete) Unrestrained, licentious.
   • Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
     Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
     Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;
     Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
     Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
     A thousand times in secret.1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward]...

   Synonyms:

   easy, free, lustful, abandoned, common, fast, lascivious, lewd, libidinous, licentious

5. Pertaining to a type of education the purpose of which is to cultivate and develop wise, capable and well-rounded people who are thus free of mental constraint and hindrance.
   • Americans remain enamored with Europe's ability to produce the consequential thought for America. It was the same in nearly every liberal field. Education sought its roots in such Europeans as Froebel, Frobenius, and Rousseau. Political science tried to connect to Thomas Hobbes, John Locke...1997, Gordon D. Morgan, Toward an American Sociology: Questioning the European Construct, →ISBN, page 45
6. (now rare outside set phrases) Pertaining to those arts and sciences the study of which is considered to provide general knowledge, as opposed to vocational/occupational, technical or mechanical training; usually found in the phrase "liberal arts".
   • He had a full education studying the liberal arts.

See all 23 meanings of liberal