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Voluntary   /vˈɑləntɛri/   Listen
adjective
Voluntary  adj.  
1.
Proceeding from the will; produced in or by an act of choice. "That sin or guilt pertains exclusively to voluntary action is the true principle of orthodoxy."
2.
Unconstrained by the interference of another; unimpelled by the influence of another; not prompted or persuaded by another; done of his or its own accord; spontaneous; acting of one's self, or of itself; free. "Our voluntary service he requires." "She fell to lust a voluntary prey."
3.
Done by design or intention; intentional; purposed; intended; not accidental; as, if a man kills another by lopping a tree, it is not voluntary manslaughter.
4.
(Physiol.) Of or pertaining to the will; subject to, or regulated by, the will; as, the voluntary motions of an animal, such as the movements of the leg or arm (in distinction from involuntary motions, such as the movements of the heart); the voluntary muscle fibers, which are the agents in voluntary motion.
5.
Endowed with the power of willing; as, man is a voluntary agent. "God did not work as a necessary, but a voluntary, agent, intending beforehand, and decreeing with himself, that which did outwardly proceed from him."
6.
(Law) Free; without compulsion; according to the will, consent, or agreement, of a party; without consideration; gratuitous; without valuable consideration.
7.
(Eccl.) Of or pertaining to voluntaryism; as, a voluntary church, in distinction from an established or state church.
Voluntary affidavit or Voluntary oath (Law), an affidavit or oath made in an extrajudicial matter.
Voluntary conveyance (Law), a conveyance without valuable consideration.
Voluntary escape (Law), the escape of a prisoner by the express consent of the sheriff.
Voluntary jurisdiction. (Eng. Eccl. Law) See Contentious jurisdiction, under Contentious.
Voluntary waste. (Law) See Waste, n., 4.
Synonyms: See Spontaneous.



noun
Voluntary  n.  (pl. voluntaries)  
1.
One who engages in any affair of his own free will; a volunteer. (R.)
2.
(Mus.) A piece played by a musician, often extemporarily, according to his fancy; specifically, an organ solo played before, during, or after divine service.
3.
(Eccl.) One who advocates voluntaryism.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Voluntary" Quotes from Famous Books



... with hartshorn, while he went for a physician: he was scarce at the stairhead when she followed; and pulling him into a closet, thanked him for her cure; which was so absolute, that she gave me this relation herself, to be communicated for the benefit of all the voluntary invalids ...
— The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 • George A. Aitken

... compromises; all war and preparations for war; all capital and other vindictive punishments; all insurrectionary, seditious, mobocratic, and personal violence against any government, society, family, or individual; all voluntary participation in any anti-Christian government, under promise of unqualified support, whether by doing military service, commencing actions at law, holding office, voting, petitioning for penal laws, or asking public interference ...
— Woman and the Republic • Helen Kendrick Johnson

... later he must be thrown into collision with the imperial court, the Landgrave had now for some time made up his mind to found a merit with the Swedish chancellor and general officers, by precipitating an uncompromising rupture with his Catholic enemies, and thus to extract the grace of a voluntary act from what, in fact, he knew to ...
— Memorials and Other Papers • Thomas de Quincey

... carried out; but the labourer's view would tend to prevail with the spread of knowledge and justice. While thus anticipating later Socialism, he differs on a significant point. Thompson insists upon the importance of 'voluntary exchange' as one of his first principles. No one is to be forced to take what he does not himself think a fair equivalent for his labour. Here, again, he would coincide with the Utilitarians. They, not less than he, ...
— The English Utilitarians, Volume II (of 3) - James Mill • Leslie Stephen

... from his obscurity. Garnett wondered what had become of him in the interval, and in what shape he would respond to the evocation. The fact that his wife feared he might not respond to it at all, seemed to show that his exile was voluntary, or had at least come to appear preferable to other alternatives; but if that were the case it was curious that he should not have taken legal means to free himself. He could hardly have had his wife's motives for wishing to maintain the vague ...
— The Hermit and the Wild Woman and Other Stories • Edith Wharton


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