1821. Egan, Tom and Jerry (ed. 1890), p. 91. Blew a cloud at a free-and-easy.
1843. Macaulay, Essays: Gladstone on Church and State. Clubs of all ranks, from those which have lined Pall-Mall and St. James’s Street with their palaces, down to the free-and-easy which meets in the shabby parlour of the village inn.
1869. Mrs. H. Wood, Roland Yorke, ch. xii. He tilted himself on to a high stool in the middle of the room, his legs dangling, just as though he had been at a free-and-easy meeting.
1880. Jas. Greenwood, Odd People in Odd Places, p. 64. A roaring trade is done, for instance, on a Saturday evening at the ‘Medley’ in Hoxton, a combination of theatre and music-hall, and serves as a free-and-easy chiefly for boys and girls.
1891. Cassell’s Saturday Journal, Sept., p. 1068, col. 3. The free-and-easy of to-day among us is a species of public-house party, at which much indifferent liquor and tobacco are consumed, songs are sung, and speeches are got rid of.
Freebooker, subs. (journalists’).—A ‘pirate’ bookseller or publisher; a play on the word freebooter.
Free fight, subs. (colloquial).—A general mellay.
1877. W. Mark, Green Past. and Picc., ch. xxx. That vehement German has been insisting on the Irish porters bringing up all our luggage at once; and as there has been a sort of free fight below he comes fuming upstairs. [[68]]
Free-fishery, subs. phr. (venery).—The female pudendum. For synonyms, see Monosyllable.
Freeholder, subs. (venery).—1. A prostitute’s lover or fancyman. Cf., Free-fishery, and for synonyms, see Joseph.