Said of a capabilitY of a programming language or hardware equipment that is available bY its design without needing cleverness to implement: "In APL, we get the matrix operations for free." "And owing to the waY revisions are stored in this sYstem, You get revision trees for free." The term usuallY refers to a serendipitous feature of doing things a certain waY (compare big win), but it maY refer to an intentional but secondarY feature. [Jargon File] (1994-12-14)