laissez faire - Definitions from Dictionary.com

5 results for: laissez faire

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

lais·sez faire

Audio Help [les-ey fair; Fr. le-sey fer] Pronunciation Key

–noun

1.	the theory or system of government that upholds the autonomous character of the economic order, believing that government should intervene as little as possible in the direction of economic affairs.

2.	the practice or doctrine of noninterference in the affairs of others, esp. with reference to individual conduct or freedom of action.

Also, laisser faire.

[Origin: 1815–25; < F: lit., allow to act

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
laissez faire

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

lais·sez-faire

Audio Help [les-ey-fair; Fr. le-sey-fer] Pronunciation Key

–adjective

of, pertaining to, or conforming to the principles or practices of laissez faire.

Also, laisser-faire.

[Origin: 1815–25

]

—Related forms

laissez-faireism, noun

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

lais·sez faire also lais·ser faire Audio Help (lěs'ā fâr', lā'zā) Pronunciation Key
n.

An economic doctrine that opposes governmental regulation of or interference in commerce beyond the minimum necessary for a free-enterprise system to operate according to its own economic laws.
Noninterference in the affairs of others.

[French : laissez, second person pl. imperative of laisser, to let, allow + faire, to do.]

lais'sez-faire' adj.

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WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

laissez faire
noun
the doctrine that government should not interfere in commercial affairs [syn: individualism]

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Laissez faire

Lais`sez" faire"\ [F., let alone.] Noninterference; -- an axiom of some political economists, deprecating interference of government by attempts to foster or regulate commerce, manufactures, etc., by bounty or by restriction; as, the doctrine of laissez faire; the laissez faire system government.

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