liberal

liberal adj 1 Liberal, generous, bountiful, bounteous, openhanded, munificent, handsome are applied to a person or to his deeds or utterances and mean showing or revealing a spirit of giving freely and without stint.

Liberal suggests openhandedness or lack of closeness or meanness in the giver and largeness in the thing that is given

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make a liberal provision for a son at college

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a liberal offer for a house

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liberal in praise

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about three thousand New Hampshire men were engaged in privateering . . . receiving liberal rewards for the risks they took— Amer. Guide Series: N. H.

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opium smokers included the upper crust of the underworld, as well as a liberal representation from the socialite class— Maurer & Vogel

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Generous usually emphasizes some positive quality of heart and mind (as warmhearted readiness to give, forgetfulness of self, or magnanimity) that prompts the giver or the gift more than the size or importance of the gift

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made a generous provision for his servants in his will

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rejected a friend's generous offer of assistance

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she was generous beyond the dreary bounds of common sense— Osbert Sitwell

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boys "not manly enough nor brave enough" to do a generous action where there was a chance that it could get them into trouble?— Brooks

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Bountiful suggests lavish or unremitting generosity in providing or giving

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he is a worthy gentleman ... as bountiful as mines of India— Shak.

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even the bountiful Queen of Berengaria had overlooked him when she distributed honors— Glasgow

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Bounteous carries much the same suggestions as bountiful but is less often applied to a person

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the bounteous yields of [crops] ... for which the state is noted— Amer. Guide Series: Ariz.

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caused them to ... be very bounteous in their avowals of interest— Hawthorne

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Openhanded emphasizes generosity in giving and may further suggest freedom from all taint of self-interest and sometimes of forethought in the giving (compare close-fisted at STINGY)

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he was free and openhanded and grudged her nothing— McCrone

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a curious mixture of openhanded generosity and miserly penny-pinching— Newsweek

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Munificent stresses splendid or princely liberality

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a munificent endowment

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Caesar had been most munificent to his soldiers. He had doubled their ordinary pay. He had shared the spoils of his conquests with them— Froude

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Handsome (for application to a person see BEAUTIFUL) is often a close synonym of liberal and may carry a suggestion of astonishing largeness when applied to a gift, an offer, or a salary

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in the case of the king and other public dignitaries we have arranged that they shall have handsome incomes— Shaw

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assuredly the archbishop . . . leaves something handsome for the servants— Borrow

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or it may be a close synonym of generous especially when applied to an act or deed that evokes admiration for its unexpected magnanimity or graciousness

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I should like you to think of our house as your home, Tony." . . . This was handsome, if it was meant, and there seemed no reason why it shouldn't be— Archibald Marshall

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Analogous words: lavish, prodigal, *profuse, exuberant: benevolent, philanthropic, eleemosynary, *charitable

Antonyms: close (sense 5) —

Contrasted words: *stingy, niggardly, close-fisted, tight, tightfisted, penurious, miserly, parsimonious: *meager, scanty

2 Liberal, progressive, advanced, radical are comparable when used of a person or thing (as an idea, a writing, or an organization) to denote being freed from or opposed to what is orthodox, established, or conservative.

Liberal implies emancipation from what binds the mind or will and connotes either indifference to tradition, convention, dogmas, or laws or the rejection of one or more of these. It therefore may suggest tolerance and broad-mindedness on the one hand, or unorthodoxy, laxness, or even lawlessness, on the other

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a liberal Christian

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a liberal Republican

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some people who themselves hold liberal views are willing that their children shall first acquire conventional morals— Russell

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Progressive is commonly a relative term, because it usually implies a comparison with what is reactionary or backward and a willingness to forsake old and seek out fresh methods and beliefs in the search for betterment

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one progressive publisher is now experimenting with plastic bindings— Third Degree

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progressive economic and social legislation designed to benefit the masses—^. C. Gordon

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mentally so progressive that they were agitating for schools and the vote— Heiser

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The term seldom suggests the espousal of extreme policies

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a progressive businessman

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pro-gressive ideas in education

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Advanced is usually applied to men or to ideas and discoveries that are, or are believed to be, ahead of their time. It can favorably suggest liberalism or progressiveness and distinctively connote mental daring or it can unfavorably suggest an extreme of fool- hardiness and experimental impracticality

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the economic interests of the advanced and backward peoples— Hobson

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an interdependent and technologically highly advanced world— Wirth

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endeavoring . . . with the aid of the most advanced scientific discoveries, not only to injure but also to destroy fellow beings— Gilroy

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Radical often is employed in place of advanced, but discriminative^ it may imply a willingness to root up and destroy the institutions which conserve or propagate the ideas or policies condemned; it is often therefore virtually interchangeable with revolutionary

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radical[/i] ideas let loose by the American Revolution, the French Revolution, the revolutionary movements of 1848, have slowly but profoundly affected men's desires and their demands upon governments— Frankfurter

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All of these words are capable of being used disparagingly especially as applied to politically active individuals or their works, often with little thought of their meaning content in more general applications.

Analogous words: tolerant, *forbearing, indulgent, lenient

Antonyms: authoritarian

Contrasted words: strict, stringent, *rigid, rigorous: dogmatic, doctrinaire, *dictatorial, oracular