"free city" meaning in English

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "free cities",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "free city (plural free cities)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [],
      "derived": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "Free City of Danzig"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1727, Nathaniel Lardner, Credibility of the Gospel History, 1815, The Works of Nathaniel Lardner, D.D., Volume 1, Thomas Hamilton, page 124,\nPliny calls ᵉ Tarsus a free city: which is an incontestable proof it was not a Roman colony, for then he would have called it so."
        },
        {
          "text": "1835, Free Cities, article in Francis Lieber, Edward Wigglesworth, T. G. Bradford (editors), Encyclopædia Americana, Volume 5, New Edition, page 311,\nThe remnants of this league, with the former confederacy of cities, which had its representatives in the German diet, and the free cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck, were incorporated with the French empire in 1810. As these cities coöperated vigorously in the recovery of German independence, they were acknowledged, together with Frankfort, as free cities, by the congress of Vienna. […] Besides these four free cities in Germany, Cracow (q. v.) was likewise declared a free city by the general act of the congress of Vienna, and is under the protection of Russia, Austria and Prussia."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Matthew Parish, A Free City in the Balkans: Reconstructing a Divided Society in Bosnia, I.B. Tauris, page 210",
          "text": "The High Commissioner of the Free City of Danzig was a position established under the Peace Treaty of Versailles that concluded World War I.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any of various types of city of Europe from classical to modern times, characterised by relative autonomy and/or being responsible only and directly to a king or emperor; a more modern city of such type, sometimes elsewhere than in Europe."
      ],
      "id": "en-free_city-en-noun-odMnRT1U",
      "links": [
        [
          "city",
          "city"
        ],
        [
          "autonomy",
          "autonomy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly historical) Any of various types of city of Europe from classical to modern times, characterised by relative autonomy and/or being responsible only and directly to a king or emperor; a more modern city of such type, sometimes elsewhere than in Europe."
      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "free Hanseatic city"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "free and Hanseatic city"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "free imperial city"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "free and imperial city"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "royal free city"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "free royal city"
        },
        {
          "_dis1": "100 0",
          "word": "city state"
        }
      ],
      "tags": [
        "historical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "_dis": "42 58",
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w+disamb"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A special economic zone."
      ],
      "id": "en-free_city-en-noun-wAOAr2jt",
      "links": [
        [
          "special economic zone",
          "special economic zone"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "free city"
  ],
  "word": "free city"
}

{
  "categories": [
    "English countable nouns",
    "English entries with incorrect language header",
    "English lemmas",
    "English multiword terms",
    "English nouns"
  ],
  "derived": [
    {
      "word": "Free City of Danzig"
    }
  ],
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "free cities",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "free city (plural free cities)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "related": [
    {
      "word": "free Hanseatic city"
    },
    {
      "word": "free and Hanseatic city"
    },
    {
      "word": "free imperial city"
    },
    {
      "word": "free and imperial city"
    },
    {
      "word": "royal free city"
    },
    {
      "word": "free royal city"
    },
    {
      "word": "city state"
    }
  ],
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English terms with historical senses",
        "English terms with quotations"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "text": "1727, Nathaniel Lardner, Credibility of the Gospel History, 1815, The Works of Nathaniel Lardner, D.D., Volume 1, Thomas Hamilton, page 124,\nPliny calls ᵉ Tarsus a free city: which is an incontestable proof it was not a Roman colony, for then he would have called it so."
        },
        {
          "text": "1835, Free Cities, article in Francis Lieber, Edward Wigglesworth, T. G. Bradford (editors), Encyclopædia Americana, Volume 5, New Edition, page 311,\nThe remnants of this league, with the former confederacy of cities, which had its representatives in the German diet, and the free cities of Hamburg, Bremen and Lubeck, were incorporated with the French empire in 1810. As these cities coöperated vigorously in the recovery of German independence, they were acknowledged, together with Frankfort, as free cities, by the congress of Vienna. […] Besides these four free cities in Germany, Cracow (q. v.) was likewise declared a free city by the general act of the congress of Vienna, and is under the protection of Russia, Austria and Prussia."
        },
        {
          "ref": "2009, Matthew Parish, A Free City in the Balkans: Reconstructing a Divided Society in Bosnia, I.B. Tauris, page 210",
          "text": "The High Commissioner of the Free City of Danzig was a position established under the Peace Treaty of Versailles that concluded World War I.",
          "type": "quotation"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Any of various types of city of Europe from classical to modern times, characterised by relative autonomy and/or being responsible only and directly to a king or emperor; a more modern city of such type, sometimes elsewhere than in Europe."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "city",
          "city"
        ],
        [
          "autonomy",
          "autonomy"
        ]
      ],
      "raw_glosses": [
        "(chiefly historical) Any of various types of city of Europe from classical to modern times, characterised by relative autonomy and/or being responsible only and directly to a king or emperor; a more modern city of such type, sometimes elsewhere than in Europe."
      ],
      "tags": [
        "historical"
      ]
    },
    {
      "glosses": [
        "A special economic zone."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "special economic zone",
          "special economic zone"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "wikipedia": [
    "free city"
  ],
  "word": "free city"
}