a person who supports or advocates free trade
archaic a smuggler or smuggling vessel
First recorded in 1690–1700; free trade + -er 1
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Larry Kudlow, a noted free trader who leads the National Economic Council, was undergoing surgery for a hip replacement and was not present for key discussions.
From New York Times • Jun. 1, 2019
He is also—contrary to Trump as well as some of his rivals in the upcoming primaries, notably Sen. Bernie Sanders—an unabashed free trader.
From Slate • May 2, 2019
“It’s caveated more than it used to be. It’s tougher to find somebody who would just go out unabashedly and say, ‘I’m a free trader.’
From Washington Post • Mar. 13, 2018
Mr. Gigot noted that “you said in the last debate you’re a 100% free trader but you just don’t like some of the deals that have been negotiated.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2015
Hence comes the lowering of prices to the consumer in protected articles, a fact which is the cause of much satiric laughter to the free trader because he can neither deny nor explain it.
From The Arena Volume 4, No. 24, November, 1891 by Flower, B. O. (Benjamin Orange)
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.
