free-thoughtn.

1711 Ld. Shaftesbury Characteristicks II. iv. 116 If it [sc. religion] be of the dismal sort; if it brings along with it any Affection opposite to Manhood, Generosity, Courage, and Free-Thought.

1736 G. Berkeley Disc. Magistr. in Wks. (1738) 35 The Magistrate, perhaps, may not be sufficiently aware, that those pretended Advocates for private Light, and free Thought, are in reality seditious men.

1850 G. J. Holyoake Hist. Last Trial for Atheism in Eng. 87 Socialism had always attached great importance to freedom of expression, and Socialism's advocates had been styled ‘apostles of freethought’.

1860 Pathfinder 20 Oct. 241 The country booksellers do not care to supply free-thought publications, because it brings them into collision with the clergy of the district.

1887 Academy 12 Nov. 314 These centres of learning and freethought.

1915 R. S. Bourne in New Republic 10 July 258/1 Questions such as evolution, capital punishment, free thought, protection and education of women, furnish the themes for composition.

1968 A. J. Ayer Humanist Outlook 3 A broader movement of Rationalism or Free Thought, which was not merely anti-clerical but hostile to any form of religious belief.

2003 Church Times 12 Dec. 17/2 Such radical free-thought in the 17th century, and especially attacks on the Trinity, is a cause for sorrow.