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Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Idioms 285. The idiom today is to be at liberty
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to do something. Okay. Let's take a look at the note here. If someone says that he
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or she is at liberty to do something, it means that they have the right or
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permission to do a particular thing or they've been given the permission to do
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a particular thing. So they are at liberty to do it. It is used in a formal
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sense and it's probably more often heard in the negative than in the positive. So
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what does that mean ? You're a little more likely to hear somebody says that they
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are not at the Liberty to do something than they would say I am at the Liberty
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to do something. Okay. Let's continue. The origin comes from the
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Latin word" Libertatem ' which meant civil or political freedom and free from
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restraint. So free from limits. Free from restraint. It was passed down to English
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from the French word " Liberte " Okay. Meaning freedom or free will. Okay. So it
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worked its way into English this way and we got four, four examples here today.
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Here's the first one. Now the first one is not a negative. Your offer is below
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the amount I am at liberty to accept. I will discuss your offer with the boss
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and get back to you. So she's saying that it's below the offer she's at Liberty. So
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the boss probably gave her a certain amount, a bottom line and he offered
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below that. She doesn't want to say "no. " right now. She's just saying that she's
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not at liberty to accept this number. That, that's.... that is that low. She'll have
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to check with her boss first and then let her know if it's still okay or not.
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All right. Number two here. I am not at liberty. So it's a negative one. I'm not
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at liberty to discuss the details of this case. This
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matter is presently under investigation. Yes. So you might have a ... sometimes we say a
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gag order or something. You're, you're not legally allowed to talk about this
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because the investigation is going on. They don't want you revealing this
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information. All right. Number three here. There was a time anyone was at liberty.
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So anybody could have done this freely. To fish in that lake. Now because of an
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endangered species, it is against the law. So maybe they passed the law. Maybe
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there's like one fish or one little microorganism or something in that lake
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that they didn't like and they're afraid if you fish you might kill it off . So
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they say no more fishing in that Lake. So you're no longer at liberty to do that.
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Okay. And number four here. I am not at liberty to discuss confidential matters
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at my former employer or you know at his last job. There was a clause in my
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contract that I am not legally allowed to reveal that information. So he's not
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at liberty to say. So he doesn't have the freedom he has restraints. He cannot say
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that. He cannot give that information. So he is not at liberty to do that. Okay. I
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hope you got it. I hope it was clear. I hope it was informative. Thank you for your time.
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Bye-bye.
