free dive
verb
variants
or free-dive
free dived or free-dived also free dove or free-dove; free diving or free-diving; free dives or free-dives
: to swim beneath the surface of water especially at considerable depth without a portable breathing device and typically with a face mask and one or two flippers : to engage in free diving
His lungs can hold more than eight liters of air, twice that of the average adult, and he can hold his breath in a swimming pool for almost nine minutes. By the time he was 12 he could free dive more than 100 feet.—Pete Thomas
She wrote a research proposal and three years later donned a black wet suit with a weighted belt and free-dived into the lake at an altitude of nearly 20,000 feet, discovering zooplankton species new to science.—Helen Macdonald
free dive
noun
plural free dives
In the past, most of the lobster harvesting was done on free dives, without the aid of breathing equipment …
—Kirk Semple
Cite this Entry
“Free dive.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/free%20dive. Accessed 7 Jul. 2026.
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