free rein

noun

: unrestricted liberty of action or decision

Examples of free rein in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

With real pressure from Washington, Addis Ababa and the Tigrayan administration should be able to marginalize the reckless factions that are seeking to exploit the situation—and finally bring to heel the Middle Eastern powers that have for too long enjoyed free rein to meddle in the Horn of Africa. —Mulugeta Gebrehiwot Berhe, Foreign Affairs, 5 Aug. 2025

As a parent, I’m outraged by the idea of our school system giving tech companies free rein to experiment on our children in order to train their AI models or mine their personal data. —Liat Olenick, New York Daily News, 3 Aug. 2025

Extensions are often given free rein on devices and can operate with a user’s credentials, which is a gift to attacks. —Zak Doffman, Forbes.com, 30 July 2025

The editors told the creators involved that the story is Godzilla vs. Kansas City and gave them free rein to create something around that premise. —Joseph Hernandez, Kansas City Star, 25 July 2025

Word History

First Known Use

1635, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for free rein

• abstain
• airplane
• alkane
• arcane
• arraign
• attain
• backplane
• betaine
• biplane
• blockchain
• butane
• campaign