Leisure has often been defined as a quality of experience or as free time. Free time is time spent away from business, work, job hunting, domestic chores, and education, as well as necessary activities such as eating and sleeping. Leisure as an experience usually emphasizes dimensions of perceived freedom and choice. It is done for "its own sake", for the quality of experience and involvement. Other classic definitions include Thorstein Veblen's (1899) of "nonproductive consumption of time." Free time is not easy to define due to the multiplicity of approaches used to determine its essence. Different disciplines have definitions reflecting their common issues: for example, sociology on social forces and contexts and psychology as mental and emotional states and conditions. From a research perspective, these approaches have an advantage of being quantifiable and comparable over time and place.

ಬಿಡುವು ಶಬ್ದವನ್ನು ಹಲವುವೇಳೆ ಅನುಭವದ ಗುಣಮಟ್ಟ ಅಥವಾ ಪುರುಸೊತ್ತಿನ ಸಮಯ ಎಂದು ವ್ಯಾಖ್ಯಾನಿಸಲಾಗಿದೆ. ಪುರುಸೊತ್ತಿನ ಸಮಯವೆಂದರೆ ವ್ಯಾಪಾರ, ಕೆಲಸ, ಕೆಲಸದ ಹುಡುಕಾಟ, ಮನೆಗೆಲಸ, ಮತ್ತು ಶಿಕ್ಷಣ, ಜೊತೆಗೆ ನಿದ್ದೆ ಮತ್ತು ತಿನ್ನಾಟದಂತಹ ಅಗತ್ಯ ಚಟುವಟಿಕೆಗಳಿಂದ ದೂರ ಕಳೆಯಲಾದ ಸಮಯ. ಸಂಶೋಧನೆಯ ದೃಷ್ಟಿಯಿಂದ, ಈ ವಿಧಾನವು ಕಾಲ ಮತ್ತು ಸಮಯದ ಕುರಿತು ಅಳೆಯಬಹುದಾದ ಮತ್ತು ಹೋಲಿಸಬಹುದಾದ ಅನುಕೂಲಗಳನ್ನು ಹೊಂದಿದೆ.