not dependent on or conditioned by or relative to anything else
not contingent
free from external control and constraint; "an independent mind"; "a series of independent judgments"; "fiercely independent individualism"; "an independent republic"
(of a clause) capable of standing syntactically alone as a complete sentence; "the main (or independent) clause in a complex sentence has at least a subject and a verb"
underestimate the real value or ability of; "Don't sell your students short--they are just shy and don't show off their knowledge"
sell securities or commodities or foreign currency that is not actually owned by the seller, who hopes to cover (buy back) the sold items at a lower price and thus to earn a profit
(law) compulsory pretrial disclosure of documents relevant to a case; enables one side in a litigation to elicit information from the other side concerning the facts in the case
an event that occurs at a critical time; "at such junctures he always had an impulse to leave"; "it was needed only on special occasions"
a crisis situation or point in time when a critical decision must be made; "at that juncture he had no idea what to do"; "he must be made to realize that the company stands at a critical point"
line thrown from a vessel that people can cling to in order to save themselves from drowning
line that raises or lowers a deep-sea diver
support that enables people to survive or to continue doing something (often by providing an essential connection); "the airlift provided a lifeline for Berlin"; "she offered me a lifeline in my time of grief"