free agent

American  

noun

1. a person who is self-determining and is not responsible for their actions to any authority.

2. a professional athlete who is not under contract and is free to auction off their services and sign a contract with the team that offers the most money.

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free agent British  

noun

1. a person whose actions are not constrained by others

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free agent Idioms  

1. A person not under compulsion or constraint, not responsible to any authority for his or her actions. For example, After he quit his job, he decided to pursue the same line of work as a free agent . Originally used to describe a person subject to the philosophic concept of free will (as opposed to determinism), this expression was first recorded in 1662. Later it was extended to mean “someone not under obligation to an authority.”

2. A professional athlete who is free to sign a contract with any team. For example, After he was released from the Yankees, he was a free agent and could shop around for the team that offered the most money . [Second half of 1900s]

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Other Word Forms

• free agency noun
• free agentry noun

Etymology

Origin of free agent

First recorded in 1840–50

Example Sentences

Adams is in the final year of the two-year contract the future Hall of Famer signed as a free agent before last season.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 22, 2026

Scotland keeper Angus Gunn, 30, could also become a free agent, while experienced Ivory Coast centre-back Willy Boly, 35, has played just one League Cup game since signing a one-year extension last June.

From BBC • Apr. 21, 2026

And no matter what happens with LIV, its marquee attraction is set to become a free agent.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 16, 2026

When he signed with the Lakers as a free agent, he made playing all 82 regular seasons his biggest goal for the season.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 13, 2026

In Mendel’s experiments, every gene had behaved like an independent entity—a free agent.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee