free love

American  

noun

1. the doctrine or practice of having sexual relations or living together without legal marriage or continuing obligation.

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free love British  

noun

1. the practice of sexual relationships without fidelity to a single partner or without formal or legal ties

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Etymology

Origin of free love

First recorded in 1815–25

Example Sentences

The colony, The Times wrote, believes it can solve “without socialism, free love, and other vagaries of theorists, the ideal conditions of human life and association.”

From Los Angeles Times • Aug. 10, 2023

In the late 1950s in New York City, a group of therapists founded the Sullivan Institute, which promoted free love and communal living and attracted hundreds of followers, including the painter Jackson Pollock.

From New York Times • Jun. 9, 2023

They sought to completely alter society and often advocated innovations like communal housing, free love, and women’s rights—all considered radical at the time.

From Textbooks • Dec. 14, 2022

The free love script stands in the 2,000-year-old history of what scholars call antinomianism in Christian thought.

From Salon • Oct. 8, 2022

He had learned from the past and knew change couldn’t just come from free love, peace, and brotherhood.

From "Bodega Dreams" by Ernesto Quinonez