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law
1[ law ]
noun
- the principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognized and enforced by judicial decision.
- any written or positive rule or collection of rules prescribed under the authority of the state or nation, as by the people in its constitution. Compare bylaw, statutory law.
- the controlling influence of such rules; the condition of society brought about by their observance:
maintaining law and order.
- a system or collection of such rules.
- the department of knowledge concerned with these rules; jurisprudence:
to study law.
- the body of such rules concerned with a particular subject or derived from a particular source:
commercial law.
- an act of the supreme legislative body of a state or nation, as distinguished from the constitution.
- the principles applied in the courts of common law, as distinguished from equity.
- the profession that deals with law and legal procedure:
to practice law.
- legal action; litigation:
to go to law.
- a person, group, or agency acting officially to enforce the law:
The law arrived at the scene soon after the alarm went off.
- any rule or injunction that must be obeyed:
Having a nourishing breakfast was an absolute law in our household.
- a rule or principle of proper conduct sanctioned by conscience, concepts of natural justice, or the will of a deity:
a moral law.
- a rule or manner of behavior that is instinctive or spontaneous:
the law of self-preservation.
- (in philosophy, science, etc.)
- a statement of a relation or sequence of phenomena invariable under the same conditions.
- a mathematical rule.
- a principle based on the predictable consequences of an act, condition, etc.:
the law of supply and demand.
- a rule, principle, or convention regarded as governing the structure or the relationship of an element in the structure of something, as of a language or work of art:
the laws of playwriting;
the laws of grammar.
- a commandment or a revelation from God.
- Sometimes Law. a divinely appointed order or system.
- the Law. Law of Moses.
- the preceptive part of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, in contradistinction to its promises:
the law of Christ.
- British Sports. an allowance of time or distance given a quarry or competitor in a race, as the head start given a fox before the hounds are set after it.
verb (used with object)
- Chiefly Dialect. to sue or prosecute.
- British. (formerly) to expeditate (an animal).
law
2[ law ]
adjective
- an obsolete variant of low 1.
law
3[ law ]
verb (used with or without object)
- an obsolete variant of low 2.
law
4[ law ]
interjection
- (used as an exclamation expressing astonishment.)
Law
5[ law ]
noun
- Andrew Bon·ar [bon, -er], 1858–1923, English statesman, born in Canada: prime minister 1922–23.
- John, 1671–1729, Scottish financier.
- William, 1686–1761, English clergyman and devotional writer.
law
1/ lɔː /
law
2/ lɔː /
noun
- a hill, esp one rounded in shape
law
3/ lɔː /
noun
- a rule or set of rules, enforceable by the courts, regulating the government of a state, the relationship between the organs of government and the subjects of the state, and the relationship or conduct of subjects towards each other
- a rule or body of rules made by the legislature See statute law
- a rule or body of rules made by a municipal or other authority See bylaw
- the condition and control enforced by such rules
- ( in combination )
lawcourt
- a rule of conduct
a law of etiquette
- one of a set of rules governing a particular field of activity
the laws of tennis
- the law
- the legal or judicial system
- the profession or practice of law
- the police or a policeman
- a binding force or statement
his word is law
- Also calledlaw of nature a generalization based on a recurring fact or event
- the science or knowledge of law; jurisprudence
- the principles originating and formerly applied only in courts of common law Compare equity
- a general principle, formula, or rule describing a phenomenon in mathematics, science, philosophy, etc
the laws of thermodynamics
- the Lawcapital Judaism
- short for Law of Moses
- a law unto itself or a law unto himselfa person or thing that is outside established laws
- go to lawto resort to legal proceedings on some matter
- lay down the lawto speak in an authoritative or dogmatic manner
- reading the Law or reading of the LawJudaism that part of the morning service on Sabbaths, festivals, and Mondays and Thursdays during which a passage is read from the Torah scrolls
- take the law into one's own handsto ignore or bypass the law when redressing a grievance
Law
4/ lɔː /
noun
- LawAndrew Bonar18581923MBritishCanadianPOLITICS: statesmanPOLITICS: prime minister Andrew Bonar (ˈbɒnə). 1858–1923, British Conservative statesman, born in Canada; prime minister (1922–23)
- LawDenis1940MScottishSPORT AND GAMES: footballerFILMS AND TV: television commentatorFILMS AND TV: radio commentator Denis. born 1940, Scottish footballer; a striker, he played for Manchester United (1962–73) and Scotland (30 goals in 55 games, 1958–74); European Footballer of the Year (1964)
- LawJohn16711729MScottishBUSINESS: financier John. 1671–1729, Scottish financier. He founded the first bank in France (1716) and the Mississippi Scheme for the development of Louisiana (1717), which collapsed due to excessive speculation
- LawJude1972MBritishFILMS AND TV: actor Jude . born 1972, British film actor, who starred in The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), and Sherlock Holmes (2009)
- LawWilliam16861761MBritishRELIGION: clergyman William. 1686–1761, British Anglican divine, best known for A Serious Call to a Holy and Devout Life (1728)
law
/ lô /
- A statement that describes invariable relationships among phenomena under a specified set of conditions. Boyle's law, for instance, describes what will happen to the volume of an ideal gas if its pressure changes and its temperature remains the same. The conditions under which some physical laws hold are idealized (for example, there are no ideal gases in the real world), thus some physical laws apply universally but only approximately.
- See Note at hypothesis
Other Words From
- law·like adjective
Word History and Origins
Origin of law1
Word History and Origins
Origin of law1
Origin of law2
Idioms and Phrases
- be a law to / unto oneself, to follow one's own inclinations, rules of behavior, etc.; act independently or unconventionally, especially without regard for established mores.
- lay down the law,
- to state one's views authoritatively.
- to give a command in an imperious manner:
The manager laid down the law to the workers.
- take the law into one's own hands, to administer justice as one sees fit without recourse to the usual law enforcement or legal processes:
The townspeople took the law into their own hands before the sheriff took action.
- at law. at law ( def ).
More idioms and phrases containing law
- above suspicion (the law)
- lay down the law
- letter of the law
- long arm of the law
- Murphy's law
- possession is nine points of the law
- take the law into one's hands
- unwritten law
Synonym Study
Example Sentences
Unless there is a court decision that changes our law, we are OK.
Submission is set in a France seven years from now that is dominated by a Muslim president intent on imposing Islamic law.
A few days later, Bush replied, “We will uphold the law in Florida.”
To those who agreed with him, Bush pledged that the law against same-sex marriage would remain intact.
In Israel, however, a new law took effect January 1st that banned the use of underweight models.
We should have to admit that the new law does little or nothing to relieve such a situation.
He that seeketh the law, shall be filled with it: and he that dealeth deceitfully, shall meet with a stumblingblock therein.
To Harrison and his wife there was no distinction between the executive and judicial branches of the law.
Now this setting up of an orderly law-abiding self seems to me to imply that there are impulses which make for order.
These schools became affiliated Universities, but never equalled the Law University in importance.
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Related Words
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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