Word.ws English Dictionary

unfree

unfree adjective: not free; lacking freedom, especially (historical) of a tenant who was bound to a manor.

Adjective

unfree (comparative more unfree or unfreer or unfree-er, superlative most unfree or unfreest or unfree-est)

  1. Not free; lacking freedom, especially (historical) of a tenant who was bound to a manor.
    • By the time of the Nibelungenlied the word was used to denote a wide variety of usually ecclesiastic or royal administrators, from the lowest, unfree ministerial to an enfeoffed judge.2002, Francis G. Gentry, The Nibelungen Tradition, page 142
    • Economically free countries enjoy decentralized power, whereas the power in economically unfree countries is centralized.2006, James R. Otteson, Actual Ethics, page 17

Noun

unfree (plural unfrees)

  1. (historical) A person lacking freedom, such as a tenant bound to a manor.
    • The commissioners then proceeded to consider the various petitions and remonstrances of the unfrees, and to determine the amount to be levied from each.1863, James Paterson, History of the Counties of Ayr and Wigton (parts 1-2, page ccviii)

unfree meaning in Tamil and Marathi

unfree in Tamil

விடுதலையற்ற

unfree in Marathi

not free
अमुक्त amukta

Forms of unfree

Adjective
comparativemore unfree
comparativeunfreer
comparativeunfree-er
superlativemost unfree
superlativeunfreest
superlativeunfree-est
Noun
pluralunfrees

Origin of unfree

From Middle English unfre, from Old English [Term?], from Proto-West Germanic *unfrī; cognates include Middle High German unfrī (German unfrei), Middle Low German unvrī, Middle Dutch onvri (Dutch onvrij). By surface analysis, un- + free.

Words formed from unfree

Questions about unfree

What does unfree mean?
Unfree means not free; lacking freedom, especially (historical) of a tenant who was bound to a manor.
What is unfree in Tamil?
Unfree in Tamil is விடுதலையற்ற. See Unfree meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is unfree?
Unfree can be an adjective or a noun.

Words near unfree in the dictionary

  1. unfreakingbelievable
  2. unfreakish
  3. unfreakishly
  4. unfreaky
  5. unfreckled
  6. unfree
  7. unfree-est
  8. unfreeable
  9. unfreed
  10. unfreedom
  11. unfreedoms

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unfree (page history and authors); unfree (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “unfree.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unfree. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.