UNWRITTEN LAW • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Unwritten law

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/ənrˈɪtən lɔ/ Listen

adjective

Unwritten adj.

Not written; not reduced to writing; oral; as, unwritten agreements.

Containing no writing; blank; as, unwritten paper.

Unwritten doctrines (Theol.), such doctrines as have been handed down by word of mouth; oral or traditional doctrines.

Unwritten law. That part of the law of England and of the United States which is not derived from express legislative enactment, or at least from any enactment now extant and in force as such. This law is now generally contained in the reports of judicial decisions. See Common law, under Common.

Unwritten laws, such laws as have been handed down by tradition or in song. Such were the laws of the early nations of Europe.

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Etymology of 'Unwritten law'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Unwritten law" Quotes from Famous Books

... quite so hard when pelting the girls, nor wash their faces with the same vehemence as they did each other's, but there was no public evidence of partiality. However, if any boy was too rough or took advantage of a girl smaller than himself, he was promptly thrashed by his fellows. There was an unwritten law and public sentiment in that little Academy world that enabled us to study and play together with the greatest freedom ...

— Eighty Years And More; Reminiscences 1815-1897 • Elizabeth Cady Stanton

... to one side. It is an unwritten law amongst poker players, in a public place in the west of the American continent, that no onlooker should stand immediately behind any player. He moved to Lablache's right. The money-lender was dealing. "Lord" Bill lit ...

— The Story of the Foss River Ranch • Ridgwell Cullum

... walk along Montgomery street to Market, where he turned westward. It was Saturday and his father's office, where he was now studying law, had been closed since noon. It had become a custom—almost an unwritten law—to promenade San Francisco's lordly thoroughfare on the last afternoon of the week, especially the northern side. For Market street was now a social barrier. South of it were smaller, meaner shops, saloons, beer-swilling "cafe ...

— Port O' Gold • Louis John Stellman

... resent a real or fancied affront to its dignity. A warped sense of honor, a sort of belated theory of chivalry, is responsible for some acts of violence. A seducer is likely to be called to account and the slayer, by invoking the "unwritten law," has usually been acquitted. Such a case lends itself to the display of flamboyant oratory, and the plea of "protecting the home" has set many murderers free. Perhaps the South is becoming less susceptible ...

— The New South - A Chronicle Of Social And Industrial Evolution • Holland Thompson

... as is or was practised in the great English public schools—enforced services exacted from the younger lads—which at the time Myles came to Devlen had, in the five or six years it had been in practice, grown to be an absolute though unwritten law of the body—a law supported by all the prestige of long-continued usage. At that time the bachelors numbered but thirteen, yet they exercised over the rest of the sixty-four squires and pages a rule of iron, and were taskmasters, ...

— Men of Iron • Ernie Howard Pyle

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