[see -RY.]
† 1. The craft or occupation of a freemason. Obs.
1435. in Speth, Freemasonry, 4. [In 1435 ‘John Wode, masoun,’ contracted to build the tower of the Abbey Church of St. Edmundsbury] in all mannere of thinges that longe to free masonry.
2. The principles, practices, and institutions of freemasons.
1801. Edin. Rev., I. 6. The lodges of Free Masonry. Ibid., 14. He denies that the secret of freemasonry consists in liberty and equality.
1825. Macaulay, Ess. Milton (1887), 24. Most of their absurdities were mere external badges, like the signs of freemasonry or the dresses of friars.
3. fig. Secret or tacit brotherhood, instinctive sympathy.
1810. Scott, Fam. Lett., 30 March (1894), I. vi. 173. There is a freemasonry among kindred spirits (and I am your adopted brother) that always leads them to understand one another at little expense of words.
1847. Alb. Smith, Chr. Tadpole, vii. (1879), 68. He exchanged greetings with a few of the wandering tribes as he passed: for there seemed to be a sort of free-masonry amongst them.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, Culture, Wks. (Bohn), II. 369. The gun, fishing-rod, boat, and horse, constitute among all who use them, secret free-masonries.
1886. Miss Mulock, K. Arthur, v. 178. The two children with the wonderful freemasonry of childhood, kissed one another, and made friends immediately.
