free rein

English

Noun

free rein (uncountable)

1. Loose rein(s), as of a horse.
   • 1884, Elizabeth Platt Karr, The American Horsewoman, page 256:

     she should simply hold the reins so lightly that his mouth can just be felt, which is called "giving a free rein."

   • 1910, Virgil (translated into English by Theodore C. Williams), page 8,

     So ceased the sea's uproar, when its grave Sire
     Looked o'er th' expanse, and, riding on in light,
     Flung free rein to his winged obedient car.

2. (figurative) The absence of constraints; freedom to make decisions.
   • 1790, Thomas Pennant, Of London, page 47:

     Chaucer gave a free rein to his poetical mirth

   • 1861 August 6, “SLAVERY AND THE WAR.,SPEECH OF WENDELL PHILLIPS, ESQ., AT THE CELEBRATION OF WEST INDIES EMANCIPATION”, in New York Times:

     Help the Government to dare to give free rein to the ardor of the people.

   • 1913, Charles George Herbermann, Edward Aloysius Pace, Condé Bénoist Pallen, Thomas Joseph Shahan, John Joseph Wynne, The Catholic Encyclopedia: An International Work of Reference on the Constitution, Doctrine, Discipline, and History of the Catholic Church, page 647:

     securing for himself an undivided authority and a free rein for his profligacy.

   • 2018, James Lambert, “Setting the Record Straight: An In-depth Examination of Hobson-Jobson”, in International Journal of Lexicography, volume 31, number 4, →DOI, page 487:

     Such hedging is necessitated by the lack of in-depth knowledge of the contents, which also gives free rein to the scripting of unsubstantiated factoids concerning the book.

   • 2021 July 21, Phil Gates, “Country diary: this forgotten grassland is a butterfly Serengeti”, in The Guardian‎^[1]:

     If I give my imagination free rein on this sultry afternoon, I could almost believe this shoulder-high grassland – a shimmering sea of false oat, cock’s-foot and meadow foxtail – is African savanna.

   • 2021 August 6, A. A. Dowd, “The Ryan Reynolds action-comedy Free Guy is a Truman Show for the Fortnite age”, in The A.V. Club‎^[2]:

     Free City is, by design, a generic multiplayer sandbox—it’s supposed to look like any and every free-rein video game metropolis.

Derived terms

• free reign (common, sometimes proscribed)

Related terms

• rein in
• free hand
• draw rein

Translations

the absence of constraints

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: please add this translation if you can

• Dutch: vrijbrief (nl) m
• Finnish: vapaat kädet (fi) pl
• French: champ libre (fr) m, carte blanche (fr) f
• Italian: a briglia sciolta, campo libero, carta bianca, , mano libera
• Polish: wolna ręka f
• Portuguese: carta branca (pt), rédea solta
• Russian: свобода действий (svoboda dejstvij)
• Serbo-Croatian: razularenost (sh)
• Sicilian: a rètini scioti, (vulgar) a minchia china
• Spanish: carta blanca f, rienda suelta, barra libre
• Swedish: fria tyglar (sv) c

References

• Are We Giving Free Rei(g)n to New Spelling, October 18th, 2007, Ben Zimmer, OUPblog
• Free Rein or Free Reign?
• National Dictionary Day: Do you spell “free reign” with a G?, 10/16/2007, ABC News

Anagrams

• re-refine, rerefine