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free rein

free rein

Date: Mar 14 2013

Quote

1. Quote - Listen to the quote and guess what the slang means.

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“When you’re on Twitter, everyone has free rein. I remember one time someone said, ‘Your forehead is so big, you can land an airplane on it.’”

- Singer and actress Vanessa Williams, speaking about online insults. (Us Weekly)

Definition

1. Definition - Study the definition.

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ability to do whatever you want

2. Use - Learn how the slang is used.

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Have you ever gone horseback riding? Most people use equipment to help keep themselves, and their horse, safe. There’s the saddle to give you a comfortable place to sit, and the bridle to give you a place to attach the reins. The reins are straps that you can pull on to get your horse to stop. When you let the reins go loose, the horse continues forward until you pull on the reins again.

To give free rein, then, is to allow someone or something to continue without your trying to stop it. You might not even be able to stop it if you tried. For example, a mother might tell her son that he has to keep his toys neat in most of the rooms of the house, but he can have free rein over his bedroom. Or you might say that the swim team uses the pool until six o’clock, but the public has free rein after that.

Vanessa Williams notes that there’s something out there these days that gives people free rein: the Internet. Services like Twitter allow users to say whatever they want, whenever they want. It’s not even worth it to try to pull on the reins and get the comments and insults to stop, because it just wouldn’t be possible.

Do you think it’s positive or negative to have forums like the Internet where people can have free rein?

Examples

1. Examples - Hear some example sentences.

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“When my husband’s away, I have free rein over the house and can leave my stuff wherever I want.”

“She’s always interrupting me. It’s like she thinks she has free rein over the conversation just because she has a loud voice.”

“I’ll let you make dinner if you give me free rein over dessert.”

Winners

1. Winners - See who guessed the slang definition correctly.

cubi1604 express ideas freely
by cubi1604
Plx freedom of expression
by Plx
you are free to saying your opinion
by sheitooonak
Ahshan freedom,out of restrain!
by Ahshan
Snazz De one says whatever he/she wants
by Snazz De
To let ideas or feelings be expressed freely.
by Skywalker84
a2020 Completely free,you can do anything.
by a2020
Manu4 To have no restrictions.
by Manu4
DAMAVAND Unlimited freedom for making decision or doing something
by DAMAVAND

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Comments

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Erise

Erise

Poland

The internet has changed the way we live, so it has also changed the way we communicate.


Free rein is the best way in educational field. Unique novelty can appear only when there are no prepared set of rules and fear to do wrong.Here we are, using internet and this site to learn and share. The internet forum is a “blind stage”. It’s a good  oppotinuty for those with “stage fear”.

08:35 PM Mar 25 2013 |

1 person likes this

maani 1383

maani 1383

Iran, Islamic Republic Of

saying and doing sth freely

09:48 PM Mar 16 2013 |

fraumo

Germany

to command

10:57 PM Mar 15 2013 |

sterlynk

Dominican Republic

Dont have care of your words and actions

08:59 PM Mar 14 2013 |

Jasonlongo

Jasonlongo

Congo, Democratic Republic Of The

Acoording to me I can say that free rein’s something so good for some people  but anyway we must fight against it ‘cause this drives us as beasts in the forest, but this web (the internet) helps us to get informations about things we need,, but people wanna change it to a kingdom where everything’s allowed, OK

08:21 PM Mar 14 2013 |

Flyaway

Flyaway

South Africa

Its really a nice thing for people to have some free virtual space where they can do whatever they want to do, and who cares really what they do because at the end of the day its thier lifes.

07:06 PM Mar 14 2013 |

vivekgangwar

India

Hi friends I think that  I have free rein over internet  just because I’m commenting here.


Haha ;);)

06:36 PM Mar 14 2013 |

ola33

ola33

Japan

  Internet such an interesting and NEW field in social media that really give some people the opportunity to venture their thoughts and they migt be both good and bad, both insutlting and encouraging, both sarcastic with soo much acid in it and just  kind, complimentary.. And really nothing can stop anyone from bad comments so here’s free rein since people go unpunishable, hiding behind avatars, giggling for making someone unhappy, because they will never never say those nasty things in real life because they will get beaten up for that. I can only say. What goes around, comes around! So the ones who gets insults should just ingrore it, take it easy and if it’s a good comment, just enjoy the communication.

05:23 PM Mar 14 2013 |

Ngubo Sixtus

South Africa

i do enjoy this  lesson

04:50 PM Mar 14 2013 |

marija luiza

Mexico

Wow, interesting slang frase, but to be honest, i think it is a bad one. Because, people need to stop doing things in an incorrect way, like insulting people or that way or things. In the other hand, it is good, because comunnicacion is very big for everyone, and we can discover things the most of the time. 


04:26 PM Mar 14 2013 |

1 person likes this

DaeNg

DaeNg

Thailand

out of control, out of hand


Super technology weapons from the ancients always end up out of control.

01:39 PM Mar 14 2013 |

方小圆

China

in my point of  view, every one should have free rein to say whatever they want to say. in china, there are many forbidden things. i don’t understand at all why we can’t log in twitter or  youtube…and we have many forbidden words that you can’t publish in the internet. although sometimes free rein will bring something bad, i still think that goverment’s barring us being totally free speech will only raise hackles.

11:34 AM Mar 14 2013 |

1 person likes this

Ya Nina

Kazakhstan

I suppose that the problem of windspread Internet have two sides. Positive side is that Internet gives everyone many opportunities including for development, many new interesting and useful contacts and many different information. But last positive side is the negative side. We can’t control such stream of information, especially for our children. Also you can’t control all information that willy-nilly penetrated in you. 


Another problem is the impunity of those people who spread negative dangerous or insulting information. That sense of impunity gives confidence such men without scruples that they make and talk whatever and whenever. In such cases Internet gives them free rein and that is a big problem for our present and future.

11:14 AM Mar 14 2013 |

 julito

julito

Argentina

My point of view is  to give people  free rein or freedom  and this is how mankind    have evolved  during centuries, it´s futile  pulling on the reins  or trying holding back progressive ideas but  I am against  any verbal abuse   or foul language as I am seeing on internet from some  nasty  people  against those who have oppositive thoughts, for me this is cowardice and a sign of a backwards mind. 

10:46 AM Mar 14 2013 |

Englishty

Englishty

Egypt

Absolutely there’s a huge freedom on the internet, you can say whatever you want without any control and this freedom has its own pros and cons, the internet where you have a huge free rein you can simply insult the others and sometimes you get shocked when you see these nasty insults so we have to be careful.

10:31 AM Mar 14 2013 |

lorier89

lorier89

Poland

For me it is possitive :) because everybody should have possibility to say what he/ she thinks :) But we allways should remember to keep our personal culture.



 

09:56 AM Mar 14 2013 |

Al-issawi

Al-issawi

Iraq

It is positives of course for everyone to have free rein to say or do anything; in this case each one will express him/her-self truly. However to exceed limits and insults others is very bad, but again who insult and swear, he/she only express what they look like.


 

09:14 AM Mar 14 2013 |

Ngubo Sixtus

South Africa

free rein is where everybody can raise an idea in any debate. he or she is allowed to say anything.

04:58 AM Mar 14 2013 |

Nothing at all

Bahrain

It depends on the way we use it. In my point of view,It’s positive if you express your opinion or feeling about serious or meaningful issue. On the other hand, it’s negative if you use it to make fun of someone or say unnecessary things (nonsense).

02:09 AM Mar 14 2013 |

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