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1542 T. Elyot Bibliotheca Captare coenam, to get a supper of fre cost.

a1576 L. Nowell Vocabularium Saxonicum (1952) 134/1 Orcype & Orcypunȝ, gratis; for nothing; on free cost.

1653 J. Rogers Sagrir 139 Then shall we be restored... At free-cost without charge.

1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. ii. 102 If he affirmeth it on free cost, we can confute it as cheap, by denying it.

1676 W. Wycherley Plain-dealer Ded. A man..had better pay for what he has at an inn than lie on free-cost at a gentleman's house.

1751 G. Lavington Enthusiasm Methodists & Papists: Pt. III 5 The Methodists asking her to live upon Free-Cost.

1764 ‘G. Psalmanazar’ Memoirs 134 Considering how well acquainted I was with the way of travelling at free-cost.

1800 W. Tatham Hist. & Pract. Ess. Tobacco 103 These seldom shame their keeper, as they range at large upon free cost.

1821 W. Scott Kenilworth I. ii. 43 Unwilling to quit good liquor, when it was to be had for free cost.

1839 J. E. Heath Whigs & Democrats i. i. 8 These lazy louts of the neighborhood who come here to listen to the newspapers and swill your liquor at free cost.

1847 B. W. Mann Let. 21 June in Jrnl. Negro Hist. (1925) 10 168 So now I intend to ask My Master to let me go on free cost to said Liberia.

1891 Amer. Jrnl. Psychol. 4 33 He gave from memory an account of all the ale or strong beer that he had on free cost since he was 12 years of age.

1945 Far Eastern Surv. 14 276/2 The termination of the agreement..at which time the railway and all of its property will revert to the Chinese government at free cost.

2007 Financial Express (India) (Nexis) 21 May The power ministry..is yet to resolve the difference with the Chhattisgarh government with respect to the allocation of certain power at free cost from the proposed UMPP [= ultra mega power project].