(sometimes initial capital letters) a church free from state control.
(sometimes initial capital letters) a dissenting or nonconforming church.
(initial capital letters) Also Free Kirk (in Scotland) the church established by those who left the Church of Scotland in 1843.
An Americanism dating back to 1825–35
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
We stand for a free pulpit and a free church.
From Time Magazine Archive
A 1967 graduate of the Church Divinity School of the Pacific, York has been backed by a number of local churches in operating a "free church" that ministers to Berke ley hippies.
From Time Magazine Archive
When the great split occurred in Scotland between the old and the free church, he stuck to the old, merely saying that the church of his forefathers was good enough for him.
From Captains of Industry or, Men of Business Who Did Something Besides Making Money by Parton, James
St. Jacob's has been made a free church, and my special department has been given in charge of two newly adopted Deaconesses, 'both for the betterment of parish work and reaching of the poor.'
From People of the Whirlpool by Wright, Mabel Osgood
Mr. Fee was the founder of an anti- slavery colony, a free school, and a free church, in that region, and was a scholar, philanthropist, and reformer.
From Political Recollections 1840 to 1872 by Julian, George W.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
