Dictionary entry

Libertine

Webster's Dictionary 1913

Lib″er‐tine (–tĭn), n. [L. libertinus freedman, from libertus one made free, fr. liber free: cf. F. libertin. See Liberal.] 1. (Rom. Antiq.) A manumitted slave; a freedman; also, the son of a freedman.

2. (Eccl. Hist.) One of a sect of Anabaptists, in the fifteenth and early part of the sixteenth century, who rejected many of the customs and decencies of life, and advocated a community of goods and of women.

3. One free from restraint; one who acts according to his impulses and desires; now, specifically, one who gives rein to lust; a rake; a debauchee.

Like a puffed and reckless libertine,

Himself the primrose path of dalliance treads. Shak.

4. A defamatory name for a freethinker.