free-associate
Americanverb (used without object)
Etymology
Origin of free-associate
First recorded in 1940–45
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
In one of the most touching scenes about art and understanding, Souad is asked to free-associate over simple, hypnotic footage she shot at home of water filling a pail.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2023
She’s got an uncanny ability to free-associate through her characters, who are clearly still learning to speak and write and use language, but are no less sophisticated in their depth of thought.
From New York Times • Jun. 11, 2020
When Midge enters show biz, her shtick, just like Rivers’s was, is to dress for a date, in a black dress and pearls, then free-associate truths about women’s lives.
From The New Yorker • Dec. 11, 2018
Freud encouraged patients to tell their stories and got them to free-associate around their narrative to find out how they thought and felt about themselves.
From The Guardian • Apr. 24, 2016
The writers free-associate, and contemporary concerns often get the upper hand.
From Washington Post
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.
