law

¹

[law]

noun

1. 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.

2. 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.

3. the controlling influence of such rules; the condition of society brought about by their observance.

   maintaining law and order.

4. a system or collection of such rules.

5. the department of knowledge concerned with these rules; jurisprudence.

   to study law.

6. the body of such rules concerned with a particular subject or derived from a particular source.

   commercial law.

7. an act of the supreme legislative body of a state or nation, as distinguished from the constitution.

8. the principles applied in the courts of common law, as distinguished from equity.

9. the profession that deals with law and legal procedure.

   to practice law.

10. legal action; litigation.

    to go to law.

11. a person, group, or agency acting officially to enforce the law.

    The law arrived at the scene soon after the alarm went off.

12. any rule or injunction that must be obeyed.

    Having a nourishing breakfast was an absolute law in our household.

13. a rule or principle of proper conduct sanctioned by conscience, concepts of natural justice, or the will of a deity.

    a moral law.

14. a rule or manner of behavior that is instinctive or spontaneous.

    the law of self-preservation.

15. (in philosophy, science, etc.)

    1. a statement of a relation or sequence of phenomena invariable under the same conditions.

    2. a mathematical rule.

16. a principle based on the predictable consequences of an act, condition, etc..

    the law of supply and demand.

17. 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.

18. a commandment or a revelation from God.

19. Sometimes Law a divinely appointed order or system.

20. the Law. Law of Moses.

21. the preceptive part of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, in contradistinction to its promises.

    the law of Christ.

22. 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)

1. Chiefly Dialect.,  to sue or prosecute.

2. British.,  (formerly) to expeditate (an animal).

law

²

[law]

adjective

Obsolete.

1. an obsolete variant of low.

law

³

[law]

verb (used with or without object)

Obsolete.

1. an obsolete variant of low.

law

⁴

[law]

interjection

Older Use.

1. (used as an exclamation expressing astonishment.)

Law

⁵

[law]

noun

1. Andrew Bonar 1858–1923, English statesman, born in Canada: prime minister 1922–23.

2. John, 1671–1729, Scottish financier.

3. William, 1686–1761, English clergyman and devotional writer.

law

¹

/ lɔː /

noun

1. 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

2. 1. a rule or body of rules made by the legislature See statute law

   2. a rule or body of rules made by a municipal or other authority See bylaw

3. 1. the condition and control enforced by such rules

   2. ( in combination )

      lawcourt

4. a rule of conduct

   a law of etiquette

5. one of a set of rules governing a particular field of activity

   the laws of tennis

6. 1. the legal or judicial system

   2. the profession or practice of law

   3. informal,  the police or a policeman

7. a binding force or statement

   his word is law

8. Also called: law of nature. a generalization based on a recurring fact or event

9. the science or knowledge of law; jurisprudence

10. the principles originating and formerly applied only in courts of common law Compare equity

11. a general principle, formula, or rule describing a phenomenon in mathematics, science, philosophy, etc

    the laws of thermodynamics

12. (capital) Judaism

    1. short for Law of Moses

    2. the English term for Torah See also Oral Law Written Law

13. a person or thing that is outside established laws

14. to resort to legal proceedings on some matter

15. to speak in an authoritative or dogmatic manner

16. Judaism that part of the morning service on Sabbaths, festivals, and Mondays and Thursdays during which a passage is read from the Torah scrolls

17. to ignore or bypass the law when redressing a grievance

law

²

/ lɔː /

noun

1. a hill, esp one rounded in shape

law

³

/ lɔː /

adjective

1. a Scot word for low 1

Law

⁴

/ lɔː /

noun

1. Andrew Bonar (ˈbɒnə). 1858–1923, British Conservative statesman, born in Canada; prime minister (1922–23)

2. 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)

3. 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

4. Jude . born 1972, British film actor, who starred in The Talented Mr Ripley (1999), Cold Mountain (2003), and Sherlock Holmes (2009)

5. William. 1686–1761, British Anglican divine, best known for A Serious Call to a Holy and Devout Life (1728)

law

1. 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.

2. See Note at hypothesis

Other Word Forms

• lawlike adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of law¹

First recorded before 1000; Middle English law(e), lagh(e), Old English lagu, from unattested Old Norse lagu, early plural of lag “layer, stratum, a laying in order, fixed tune, (in collective sense) law”; akin to lay ¹, lie ²

Origin of law²

First recorded in 1580–90; form of lord

Word History and Origins

Origin of law¹

Old English lagu, from Scandinavian; compare Icelandic lög (pl) things laid down, law

Origin of law²

Old English hlǣw

Idioms and Phrases

Idioms

1. 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.

2. lay down the law,

   1. to state one's views authoritatively.

   2. to give a command in an imperious manner.

      The manager laid down the law to the workers.

3. 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.

4. at law. at law.

More idioms and phrases containing law

• Murphy's law
• above suspicion (the law)
• lay down the law
• letter of the law
• long arm of the law
• possession is nine points of the law
• take the law into one's hands
• unwritten law

Synonym Study

See theory.

Example Sentences

The First Amendment is clear against laws “abridging the freedom of speech.”

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The measures, known as “Right to Try” laws, exist in more than 40 states.

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But new laws and public information campaigns changed those norms, so that buckling your seat belt is now routine.

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State officials in Kentucky also helped foster the industry’s growth by modifying the bourbon barrel tax regulations and modernizing tourism and retail laws.

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The Christian law firm had become well-known for fighting for conservative values in cases at the Supreme Court, especially related to gay marriage and abortion.

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Related Words

• act 
• case 
• charge 
• charter 
• code 
• constitution 
• decision 
• decree 
• legislation 
• mandate 
• measure 
• order 
• precedent 
• regulation 
• requirement 
• ruling 
• statute 

When To Use

What is law?

A law is a rule made by an authority and that must be obeyed.A law is commonly made by a government, which citizens must follow or face punishment. For example, in most places there are laws about not stealing. If you are caught stealing, you could be fined or put in jail, depending on the law broken and the punishment set up for that law.Law can be used more broadly to refer to a set of laws, such as all of a nation’s laws. To say murder is against the law is to say that murder is not allowed in the geographic area being referred to, such as a state or country.Law can also be used to describe the legal field, especially as a career, as in Zola had always dreamed of a career in law, so she studied hard in law school.In the sciences, a law is an indisputable fact about the way the world and the forces in it work. Such laws explain what happens but do not describe why it happens.Example: I believe it is against the law to set up security cameras without posting a sign on the door.