Etimology
From Middle English lawe, laȝe, from Old English lagu (“law”), borrowed from Old Norse lǫg (“law”, literally “things laid down or firmly established”), originally the plural of lag (“layer, stratum, a laying in order, measure, stroke”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“that which is laid down”), from Proto-Indo-European *legʰ- (“to lie”). Cognate with Scots law (“law”), Icelandic lög (“things laid down, law”), Faroese lóg (“law”), Norwegian lov (“law”), Swedish lag (“law”), Danish lov (“law”). Replaced Old English ǣ and ġesetnes. More at lay. Not related to legal, nor to French loi, Spanish ley, all of which ultimately derive from Latin lēx, from Proto-Indo-European *leǵ- (“to gather”).
noun
law (countable and uncountable, plural laws)
(usually with "the") The body of binding rules and regulations, customs, and standards established in a community by its legislative and judicial authorities.
A binding regulation or custom established in a community in this way.
(more generally) A rule, such as:
The control and order brought about by the observance of such rules.
(informal) A person or group that act(s) with authority to uphold such rules and order (for example, one or more police officers).
The profession that deals with such rules (as lawyers, judges, police officers, etc).
Jurisprudence, the field of knowledge which encompasses these rules.
Litigation; legal action (as a means of maintaining or restoring order, redressing wrongs, etc).
(now uncommon) An allowance of distance or time (a head start) given to a weaker (human or animal) competitor in a race, to make the race more fair.
(aviation) A mode of operation of the flight controls of a fly-by-wire aircraft.
(fantasy) One of two metaphysical forces ruling the world in some fantasy settings, also called order, and opposed to chaos.
(law, chiefly historical) An oath sworn before a court, especially disclaiming a debt. (Chiefly in the phrases "wager of law", "wage one's law", "perform one's law", "lose one's law".)
Examples
Not unnaturally, "Auntie" took this communication in bad part. […] Next day she […] tried to recover her ward by the hair of the head. Then, thwarted, the wretched creature went to the police for help; she was versed in the law, and had perhaps spared no pains to keep on good terms with the local constabulary.
Here one comes upon an all-important English trait: the respect for constitutionalism and legality, the belief in "the law" as something above the State and above the individual, something which is cruel and stupid, of course, but at any rate incorruptible. It is not that anyone imagines the law to be just. Everyone knows that there is one law for the rich and another for the poor. But no one accepts the implications of this, everyone takes it for granted that the law, such as it is, will be respected, and feels a sense of outrage when it is not.
The courts interpret the law but should not make it.
In theory, entrapment is against the law.
property law
commercial hunting and fishing law
There is a law against importing wallabies.
A new law forbids driving on that road.
The court ruled that the executive order was not law and nullified it.
As a political system democracy seems to me extraordinarily foolish, […]. My servant is, so far as I am concerned, welcome to as many votes as he can get. […] I do not suppose that it matters much in reality whether laws are made by dukes or cornerboys, but I like, as far as possible, to associate with gentlemen in private life.
"Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you" is a good law to follow.
the law of self-preservation
the laws of playwriting and poetry
The normal pronoun to use with "spirit" would be "it." But Jesus breaks the law of grammar and says not "when it," but "when he."
Synonyms: see Thesaurus:law of nature
Observing pi is easier than studying physical phenomena, because you can prove things in mathematics, whereas you can't prove anything in physics. And, unfortunately, the laws of physics change once every generation.
the laws of thermodynamics
Newton's third law of motion states that to every action there is always an equal and opposite reaction.
This is one of several laws derived from his general theory expounded in the Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica.
Mathematical laws can be proved purely through mathematics, without scientific experimentation.
the law of scarcity
the law of supply and demand
Grimm's law
Dahl's law
They worked to maintain law and order.
It was a territory without law, marked by violence.
Here comes the law — run!
then the law arrived on the scene
That was Joe's first confrontation with "The Law" / Naturally, we were easy on him / One of our friendly counsellors gave him a donut / And told him to stick closer / To church-oriented social activities
He is studying for a career in law.
She has practiced law in New York for twenty years.
She went to university to study law.
They were quick to go to law.
After a few minutes' waiting, two well-known runners, chosen for the hares, buckled on the four bags filled with scent, compared their watches with those of young Brooke and Thome, and started off at a long, slinging trot across the fields in the direction of Barby. Then the hounds clustered round Thome, who explained shortly, "They're to have six minutes' law."
normal law; alternate law; direct law
As to the depriving the defendant of waging his law, it was thought, the practice merited discouragement, as a temptation to perjury.
But, before the defendant takes the oath, the plaintiff is called by the crier thrice; and if he do not appear he becomes nonsuited, and then the defendant goes quit without taking his oath; and if he appear, and the defendant swear that he owes the plaintiff nothing, and the compurgators give it upon oath, that they believe he swears true, the plaintiff is barred for ever; for when a person has waged his law, it is as much as if a verdict had passed against the plaintiff; if the plaintiff do not appear to hear the defendant perform his law, so that he is nonsuit, he is not barred, but may bring a new action.
A withdrawal from a wager of law was an admission of the point as to which the law was waged; the defaulter also incurred a fine .
verb
law (third-person singular simple present laws, present participle lawing, simple past and past participle lawed)
(obsolete) To work as a lawyer; to practice law.
(transitive, intransitive, chiefly dialectal) To prosecute or sue (someone), to litigate.
(nonstandard) To rule over (with a certain effect) by law; to govern.
(informal) To enforce the law.
To subject to legal restrictions.
Examples
That was in 1877 you were lawing with Herdick?
J. H. Turner is married and lawing in Milwaukee.
The American Bar Association ruefully admits that the legal profession is overcrowded, especially in large cities. It has a committee studying the situation. Last week an editorial in the New York Law Journal urged a youthful revolt against the city, twanged an idyll of lawing in the country.
Your husband's [...] so given to lawing, they say. I doubt he'll leave you poorly off when he dies.
"I like folks to be up and down and square," she began saying, as she vigilantly watched the effect of her culinary skill upon the awed little party. "Yes, I've got a regular hotel license; you bet I have. There's been folks lawed in this town for sellin' a meal of victuals and not having one."
“So I said to her, 'Well, no man ever made anything lawing with his wife, so, if your mind is set on having a divorce and the children you will want plenty to raise them with,' so I deed her the farm in Sumner county and everything on it—horses, mules, machinery, everything.”
At its 1933 session, the Kansas legislature provided for funding outstanding bills and floating debts of those cities which could not make payment by a fixed date. By this stroke of its imagination, the legislature lawed all Kansas cities onto a "cash" basis and admonished them to stay there.
Earth lies in the chorus of the stars' congregation in the lawed line of their movement, in the balanced rotation of their light, bound by that lawed line, conceived in the focus of that turning; a vessel fashioned on the wheel of endless time.
Nicholas Downton says of the people of Surat: "a mixt people, quiet, peaceable, very subtle; civil, and universally governed under one King, but diversely lawed and customed".
So that, when GOD said, “Let there be light:” Behold the first created light burst out unto its glory
Beyond the ocher and yellow-washed buildings, French colonial with a suggestion of Beau Geste from the castellated balconies, it is an arm-grabbing, loosely lawed bazaar of a place.
De gram jury lawed me all de time an' dat place got too hot.
The only time I ever got lawed [arrested] was for the union. Happened three times.
So we're on the road with the micks, maybe a mile from the precinct, and Reedy just pulls over, takes them out onto the Commons, takes off the cuffs, and we knock about twenty pounds of shit out of them.” Petey sensed the agent watching him talk and tried to explain it all another way. “What I mean is, lawing used to be pretty damn pure.
The sheriff jabbed his thumb at his chest. "I run this shebang. Been doing so for forty-six years. You think you can come in here and preach lawing to me?
Insurance may fairly be said to head the list of objects of legislative interference. It has been lawed and lawed until it is nearly outlawed, and the cry for more continues to go up unsatisfied
No man knew what his water rights were until they had been lawed over, and lawed over, and lawed over again.
It has been truly said that we are lawed into existence and lawed through life and lawed out of it more than any other nation
She knows what's tethered underwater. Not Children's bodies, but their toys, their lost, Lawed-against pleasures
Etimology
From Middle English lawe, from Old English hlāw (“burial mound”). Also spelled low.
noun
law (plural laws)
(obsolete) A tumulus of stones.
(Northern England, Scotland, archaic) A hill.
Examples
[Y]ou might climb the Law, where the whale's jawbone stood landmark in the buzzing wind, and behold the face of many counties, and the smoke and spires of many towns, and the sails of distant ships.
Etimology
From Middle English lagh, from Old Norse lag (“that which is lying or laid, position, price, way, sting, blow”), from Proto-Germanic *lagą (“that which is laid”). Cognate with Scots lauch (“one's tavern-reckoning or one's share of the cost, a score; a payment for drink or entertainment”), Middle English lai (“one's share of expenses, one's bill or account”).
noun
law (plural laws)
(dialectal or obsolete) A score; share of expense; legal charge.
Related words
related terms
lawing
Etimology
Compare la and Lawd.
interjection
law
(dated) An exclamation of mild surprise; lawks.
Examples
‘Do tell me once for all, whether you intend to marry Mr Watts or not?’ ‘Law Mama, how can I tell you what I don't know myself?’