free dive

verb

variants or free-dive

ˈfrē-ˌdīv 

free dived or free-dived also free dove or free-dove; free diving or free-diving; free dives or free-dives

intransitive verb

: 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

Examples of free dive in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Across three episodes, Song will free dive with the haenyeo underwater sea fishers, whose tradition has been passed down from generation to generation over 400 years. —Jesse Whittock, Deadline, 23 Oct. 2024

In the image, my childhood friend Federico Martínez represents a nautical flag with his strokes while demonstrating his great ability to free dive. —Photovogue, Vogue, 9 Sep. 2024

Gatherers free dive, without the use of compressed air, hoses or bottles, and extract the barnacles from rocks using an arrilhada, a metal tool with a cutting front face and a blade that doesn’t exceed about eight inches in length and one inch in width at the cutting edge. —Jessica Kelly, Smithsonian Magazine, 15 Aug. 2024

In the three-part series, Bloom endures some of the most intense training he’s ever done in order to learn how to wingsuit, free dive, and rock climb in just a couple of weeks. —Natalia Senanayake, Peoplemag, 19 Apr. 2024

And these safety divers themselves have to free dive since scuba equipment would prevent the safety crew from ascending with the speed required for a rescue. —Taylor Antrim, Vogue, 19 July 2023

Poindexter, who had always been a strong swimmer, started to free dive every day in the kelp forest, Nikonos camera in hand. —Avery Schuyler Nunn, Smithsonian Magazine, 22 June 2023

Left: Completing his free dive in the murky waters of San Francisco Bay, Alexey Molchanov ascends to the surface. —Gregory Thomas, San Francisco Chronicle, 6 May 2023

But while Apple doesn’t recommend dives beyond 40 meters, Huawei says the Watch Ultimate can go down to 110 meters and supports technical and free dives in addition to recreational dives. —Victoria Song, The Verge, 2 Apr. 2023

Word History

First Known Use

1955, in the meaning defined above