indecent liberty
English
editNoun
editindecent liberty (plural indecent liberties)
- Any behavior beyond the limits of propriety.
- c. 1700, Samuel Garth, preface to The Dispensary
- The intention of this preface is not to persuade mankind to enter into our quarrels, but to vindicate the author from being censured for taking any indecent liberty with a faculty he has the honour to to a member of.
- 1779, Thomas Jefferson, Letter to Patrick Henry, March 27, 1779
- It would, therefore, hardly be deemed an indecent liberty in the most private citizen, to offer his thoughts to the consideration of the Executive.
- 1843, Edmund Burke, Ivison Stevenson Macadam, The Annual Register of World Events:
- Mr. Sheil taunted the Ministers with having, at a private meeting, threatened their supporters with resignation if the Bill were rejected : they had much better have appealed to the country. / Lord Stanley sharply denied that Ministers had taken the "indecent liberty" imputed to them by Mr. Sheil
- c. 1700, Samuel Garth, preface to The Dispensary
- Sexual behavior beyond social or legal limits.
- 2004, Mark R. Laaser, Healing the Wounds of Sexual Addiction, page 41:
- ... pinching, tickling, rubbing up against, and other forms of contact in places such as elevators and grocery stores may constitute an indecent liberty.