1 ' Free ' absolutely means 'free from any sorts constraints or controls. The context determines its different denotations, if any, as in 'free press', 'fee speech', 'free stuff' etc.
I checked Garner's Modern American Usage; although BG doesn't address free of vs. free from, he writes that the distinction between freedom of and freedom from is that the former indicates the "possession of a right" (freedom of speech) and the latter "protection from a wrong" (freedom from oppression). So free from is used to indicate protection from something problematic, and free of (which ...
"Free of" vs. "Free from" - English Language & Usage Stack Exchange
Free ride dates back to 1880, while free loader is a more recent construction “freeloader (n.) also free-loader, by 1939, from free (adj.) + agent noun from load (v.)As a verb, freeload is attested by 1967 and probably is a back-formation from this”
What is the opposite of free as in "free of charge" (when we speak about prices)? We can add not for negation, but I am looking for a single word.
I don't think there's any difference in meaning, although "free of charges" is much less common than "free of charge". Regarding your second question about context: given that English normally likes to adopt the shortest phrasing possible, the longer form "free of charge" can be used as a means of drawing attention to the lack of demand for ...
For free vs. free of charges [duplicate] - English Language & Usage ...
For example, imagine some food company decides to make their fruits permanently free. Online, you can "order" them (for free), but in person, what do you do? What would be the professiona...
A friend claims that the phrase for free is incorrect. Should we only say at no cost instead?
grammaticality - Is the phrase "for free" correct? - English Language ...
The fact that it was well-established long before OP's 1930s movies is attested by this sentence in the Transactions of the Annual Meeting from the South Carolina Bar Association, 1886 And to-day, “free white and twenty-one,” that slang phrase, is no longer broad enough to include the voters in this country.
Free entrance X chargeable entrance. Free parking X paid parking. Free service X chargeable service. Free consultation X paid consultation. Free health care X expensive health care. Free toilet X pay toilet. Free fare (in the sense of a free ticket to travel, the opposite can be a paid ticket). Here there is a mentioning of paying a ticket fare.
single word requests - The opposite of "free" in phrases - English ...
I want to make a official call and ask the other person whether he is free or not at that particular time. I think asking, “Are you free now?” does't sound formal. So, are there any alternatives to...
word usage - Alternatives for "Are you free now?” - English Language ...