How to Use free rein in a Sentence

free rein

noun

• This wastes seed and puts it on the ground where the rodents of the area have free rein.
  — Jeff Lowenfels, Anchorage Daily News, 15 Oct. 2020
• Give your kid free rein of the kitchen to make their own snack or lunch.
  — Amy Schwabe, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, 26 May 2021
• And the Trump era has given all but free rein to the right’s adoption of the Galilean stance.
  — Ari Schulman, The New Republic, 15 June 2020
• Then, customers have free rein to pick what to put in their bowls.
  — Jason Fontelieu, Baltimore Sun, 16 Aug. 2023
• As the stylebook reminds us, seize the reins, give free rein to, put a rein on.
  — WSJ, 12 Jan. 2023
• The two may not have been scared, but that didn't mean they were allowed free rein on the set.
  — Alexia Fernández, Peoplemag, 25 Oct. 2022
• This gives your team free rein inside the process while meeting the client’s needs.
  — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 20 Oct. 2021
• And once inside, the riders have free rein in the speaker of the House’s offices.
  — New York Times, 10 Feb. 2021
• But never again will someone have free rein to do it in the Times’ own pages.
  — Will Oremus, Slate Magazine, 31 May 2017
• Unlike the cats of Istanbul, the dogs didn’t always have free rein of the city.
  — Peter Keough, BostonGlobe.com, 24 Feb. 2021
• The Russian air force doesn't have free rein over the entire country.
  — CBS News, 8 May 2022
• Guests get free rein of the open-air yoga platform when there isn't a class in session.
  — Patricia Doherty, Travel + Leisure, 19 July 2023
• In the end, Diller didn’t have total free rein, having to work with the trust and public agencies.
  — New York Times, 20 May 2021
• The entire episode was his playground–Michelle gave him free rein to spearhead it.
  — Robyn Mowatt, Essence, 17 Apr. 2024
• Want to imagine life if the public-health oligarchy had free rein?
  — Kimberley A. Strassel, WSJ, 15 Apr. 2021
• That gives free rein to the drug dealers, the human traffickers.
  — Fox News Staff, Fox News, 1 July 2021
• Any more open windows and the flies swarming outside would have free rein.
  — Washington Post, 20 Apr. 2022
• Pastoralists, who once had free rein of Kenya’s lands, must deal with the same challenges.
  — Ed Yong, The Atlantic, 13 Mar. 2020
• Governments don’t need to keep giving them free rein to chase it.
  — Kate Aronoff, The New Republic, 14 Apr. 2023
• When their girls are showering in the evening, Pappas and her husband head to the hotel bar to give them free rein in the room.
  — Washington Post, 27 Jan. 2022
• This gave Ryan Coogler free rein to create a country in the subjunctive mode: what if…?
  — The New York Review of Books, 2 Mar. 2019
• Since opening its doors in 2000, the studio had given its staff free rein to draw on the walls in one of the building’s stairwells.
  — Tracy Brown, Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2024
• For three years he’s been given free rein to create shots for himself.
  — Ira Winderman, Sun Sentinel, 30 Oct. 2022
• There they were given free rein to forage for food for 50 minutes.
  — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 1 Jan. 2023
• The Vatican prosecutor in charge of the probe says the pontiff has given him free rein to try to find the truth.
  — Frances D'emilio, Anchorage Daily News, 16 Apr. 2023
• But Ritchie, the episode’s director, gave him free rein, take after take, Ings added, to see where the scene could take him.
  — Imogen West-Knights, New York Times, 12 Mar. 2024
• Researchers wanted to know what would happen if the sharks didn’t return during the summer and the dugongs had free rein to eat up the grass.
  — Howard Cohen, orlandosentinel.com, 27 Feb. 2021
• But mostly, Feldstein had free rein to make the character her own.
  — Anna Silman, The Cut, 19 Jan. 2018
• Giving teens privacy is not the same as giving them free rein, says Dr. Lamson.
  — Denise Witmer, Parents, 29 July 2024
• Would an inveterate adulterer, careful to keep his worlds apart, let his mistress have free rein in his other life?
  — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 24 July 2024

Last Updated: 13 Nov 2024