outlaw

[out-law]

noun

1. a lawless person or habitual criminal, especially one who is a fugitive from the law.

   Synonyms: brigand, bandit, desperado

2. a person, group, or thing excluded from the benefits and protection of the law.

3. a person under sentence of outlawry.

4. a person who refuses to be governed by the established rules or practices of any group; rebel; nonconformist.

   one of the outlaws of country music.

5. Chiefly Western U.S.

   1. a horse that cannot be broken; a mean, intractable horse.

   2. any rogue animal.

verb (used with object)

1. to make unlawful or illegal.

   The Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating beverages in the U.S.

2. to deprive of the benefits and protection of the law.

   Members of guerrilla bands who refused to surrender were outlawed.

3. to prohibit.

   to outlaw smoking in a theater.

   Synonyms: forbid, ban, proscribe

4. to remove from legal jurisdiction; deprive of legal force.

adjective

1. of, relating to, or characteristic of an outlaw.

outlaw

/ ˈaʊtˌlɔː /

noun

1. (formerly) a person excluded from the law and deprived of its protection

2. any fugitive from the law, esp a habitual transgressor

3. a wild or untamed beast

verb

1. to put (a person) outside the law and deprive of its protection

2. (in the US) to deprive (a contract) of legal force

3. to ban

Other Word Forms

• self-outlaw noun
• self-outlawed adjective
• unoutlawed adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of outlaw¹

before 1150; Middle English outlawe, Old English ūtlaga < Old Norse ūtlagi one outside the protection of the law; out, law ¹

Example Sentences

Fewer bottled waters or coffees now offer "carbon neutral" guarantees ahead of an EU directive outlawing them from 2026.

Read more on Barron's

Severino, a co-author of Project 2025, envisioned remaking the Department of Health and Human Services into an agency dedicated to dismantling reproductive rights, including outlawing mifepristone, an essential abortion medication.

Read more on Salon

In Louisiana, for example, compensating surrogates is outlawed entirely.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

The group says it had no links to the assassination and that it was unjustly outlawed.

Read more on The Wall Street Journal

Hamas published a video on its official channel showing the street execution of eight blindfolded and kneeling suspects, branding them "collaborators and outlaws."

Read more on Barron's

Related Words

• bandit 
• crook 
• desperado 
• fugitive 
• gangster 
• hoodlum 
• hooligan 
• marauder 
• mobster 
• outcast 
• pariah 
• robber