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