1
- willing to respect or accept behaviour or opinions different from one's own; open to new ideas尊重不同见解（或行为）的; 能接受新思想的; 开明的：
they have more liberal views towards marriage and divorce than some people.
他们对结婚和离婚的看法比某些人要开明。
1.1
- favourable to or respectful of individual rights and freedoms赞同（或尊重）个人权利和自由的：
liberal citizenship laws.
自由公民法。
1.2
- (in a political context) favouring individual liberty, free trade, and moderate political and social reform自由主义的（政治上支持个人自由、自由贸易和适度的政治和社会改革的）：
a liberal democratic state.
自由民主的国家。
1.3
Liberal
of or characteristic of Liberals or a Liberal Party自由党（人）的。
1.4
Liberal
(in the UK) of or relating to the Liberal Democrat party（英国）（与）自由民主党（有关）的：the Liberal leader.
自由党领袖。
1.5
- Theology regarding many traditional beliefs as dispensable, invalidated by modern thought, or liable to change【神学】自由主义神学的（认为许多传统信仰并非必要, 现代思想已证明其错误, 或认为此种信仰有改变倾向的）。
2
- attrib.(of education) concerned mainly with broadening a person's general knowledge and experience, rather than with technical or professional training（教育）通才的（有别于技术或职业教育, 以扩大学生知识面和增加其经验为主要目的的）。
3
- (especially of an interpretation of a law) broadly construed or understood; not strictly literal or exact（尤指对法律条文的解释）从广义上解释（或理解）的, 不拘泥于字面意义的：
they could have given the 1968 Act a more liberal interpretation.
他们对1968年法案的解释本可不那么拘泥于字面的。
4
- given, used, or occurring in generous amounts大量的：
liberal amounts of wine had been consumed.
已喝掉大量的酒。
4.1
- (of a person) giving generously（人）慷慨的：
Sam was too liberal with the wine.
山姆请人喝酒太慷慨了。
1
- a person of liberal views思想开明的人。
1.1
Liberal
a supporter or member of a Liberal Party自由党支持者; 自由党党员。
1.2
- (Liberal) (in the UK) a Liberal Democrat（英国）自由民主党人。
派生词
liberalism
nounliberalist
nounliberalistic
adjectiveliberally
adverbliberalness
noun词源
Middle English: via Old French from Latin liberalis, from liber 'free (man)'. The original sense was 'suitable for a free (man)'， hence 'suitable for a gentleman' (one not tied to a trade)， surviving in liberal arts. Another early sense 'generous' (compare with sense 4) gave rise to an obsolete meaning 'free from restraint'， leading to sense 1 （late 18th cent.）.