Obs. Forms: 4 fraunchise, 5 fraunch(a)yse, fraunches, 6– franchise. [a. OF. franchiss-, lengthened stem of franchir, f. franc free: see FRANK a.2] trans. To make or set free; to invest with a franchise or privilege; = ENFRANCHISE v. Const. from, of.
1393. Gower, Conf., I. 269.
| Thus stonden alle men fraunchised, | |
| But in estate they ben devised. |
1393. Langl., P. Pl., C. IV. 112.
| Hit ys noȝt semly forsoþ · in cyte ne in borwton, | |
| Þat vsurers oþer regratours · for eny kynne ȝyftes, | |
| Be fraunchised for a free man. |
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (1840), 3.
| From other dayes that day whas so devyded, | |
| And ffraunchesid ffrom mystes and ffrom reyne. |
1483. Caxton, Gold. Leg., 325 b/2. The kyng … fraunchysed al England of the trybute.
1494. Fabyan, Chron., VI. clxxi. 165. He ordeyned the first grammer scole at Oxenforde, and other free scoles, and fraunchaysed that towne with many great lyberties.
1548. Udall, etc., Erasm. Par., Acts xxii. 28. For it coste me a great some of money, before I could be franchisid & made a citizen of Rome.
1562. Legh, Armorie (1597), 74 b. Though all the towne were franchised, yet horses are not toll-free to this day.
1605. Shaks., Macb., II. i. 26.
| Banq. So I lose none, | |
| In seeking to augment it, but still keepe | |
| My Bosome franchis’d, and Allegeance cleare. |
1633. J. Done, Hist. Septuagint, 24. The summe then of those were franchis’d, mounted unto 400 Talents.
1773. L. Ross, Fratricide, II. 931 (MS.).
| Every Soul, when franchis’d from its dust, | |
| May quit this life with certain hope in thee. |
1793. W. Roberts, Looker-on (1794), II. 432, No. 61, 13 July, ¶ 5. Franchised by nature, and endued with that grace of manner by which some men are privileged above rules, he [Dryden] felt that he could adventure in poetry beyond any other writer of his age.
Hence † Franchising vbl. sb.
1574. trans. Littleton’s Tenures, 43 a. If the Lorde make to him [his villaine] a lease of landes … thys is no fraunchisinge.
1644. Evelyn, Mem. (1857), I. 82. In the Town-house, they show two tables of brass, on which is engraven Claudius’s speech, pronounced to the Senate, concerning the franchising of the town, with the Roman privileges.
