Free translatorFree translator
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Law   /lɔ/  /lɑ/   Listen
noun
Law  n.  
1.
In general, a rule of being or of conduct, established by an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling regulation; the mode or order according to which an agent or a power acts. Note: A law may be universal or particular, written or unwritten, published or secret. From the nature of the highest laws a degree of permanency or stability is always implied; but the power which makes a law, or a superior power, may annul or change it. "These are the statutes and judgments and laws, which the Lord made." "The law of thy God, and the law of the King." "As if they would confine the Interminable... Who made our laws to bind us, not himself." "His mind his kingdom, and his will his law."
2.
In morals: The will of God as the rule for the disposition and conduct of all responsible beings toward him and toward each other; a rule of living, conformable to righteousness; the rule of action as obligatory on the conscience or moral nature.
3.
The Jewish or Mosaic code, and that part of Scripture where it is written, in distinction from the gospel; hence, also, the Old Testament. Specifically: The first five books of the bible, called also Torah, Pentatech, or Law of Moses. "What things soever the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law... But now the righteousness of God without the law is manifested, being witnessed by the law and the prophets."
4.
In human government:
(a)
An organic rule, as a constitution or charter, establishing and defining the conditions of the existence of a state or other organized community.
(b)
Any edict, decree, order, ordinance, statute, resolution, judicial, decision, usage, etc., or recognized, and enforced, by the controlling authority.
5.
In philosophy and physics: A rule of being, operation, or change, so certain and constant that it is conceived of as imposed by the will of God or by some controlling authority; as, the law of gravitation; the laws of motion; the law heredity; the laws of thought; the laws of cause and effect; law of self-preservation.
6.
In mathematics: The rule according to which anything, as the change of value of a variable, or the value of the terms of a series, proceeds; mode or order of sequence.
7.
In arts, works, games, etc.: The rules of construction, or of procedure, conforming to the conditions of success; a principle, maxim; or usage; as, the laws of poetry, of architecture, of courtesy, or of whist.
8.
Collectively, the whole body of rules relating to one subject, or emanating from one source; including usually the writings pertaining to them, and judicial proceedings under them; as, divine law; English law; Roman law; the law of real property; insurance law.
9.
Legal science; jurisprudence; the principles of equity; applied justice. "Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law itself is nothing else but reason." "Law is beneficence acting by rule." "And sovereign Law, that state's collected will O'er thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning good, repressing ill."
10.
Trial by the laws of the land; judicial remedy; litigation; as, to go law. "When every case in law is right." "He found law dear and left it cheap."
11.
An oath, as in the presence of a court. (Obs.) See Wager of law, under Wager.
Avogadro's law (Chem.), a fundamental conception, according to which, under similar conditions of temperature and pressure, all gases and vapors contain in the same volume the same number of ultimate molecules; so named after Avogadro, an Italian scientist. Sometimes called Ampère's law.
Boyle's law (Physics), an expression of the fact, that when an elastic fluid is subjected to compression, and kept at a constant temperature, the product of the pressure and volume is a constant quantity, i. e., the volume is inversely proportioned to the pressure; known also as Mariotte's law, and the law of Boyle and Mariotte.
Brehon laws. See under Brehon.
Canon law, the body of ecclesiastical law adopted in the Christian Church, certain portions of which (for example, the law of marriage as existing before the Council of Tent) were brought to America by the English colonists as part of the common law of the land.
Civil law, a term used by writers to designate Roman law, with modifications thereof which have been made in the different countries into which that law has been introduced. The civil law, instead of the common law, prevails in the State of Louisiana.
Commercial law. See Law merchant (below).
Common law. See under Common.
Criminal law, that branch of jurisprudence which relates to crimes.
Ecclesiastical law. See under Ecclesiastical.
Grimm's law (Philol.), a statement (propounded by the German philologist Jacob Grimm) of certain regular changes which the primitive Indo-European mute consonants, so-called (most plainly seen in Sanskrit and, with some changes, in Greek and Latin), have undergone in the Teutonic languages. Examples: E. do, OHG, tuon, G. thun. See also lautverschiebung.
Kepler's laws (Astron.), three important laws or expressions of the order of the planetary motions, discovered by John Kepler. They are these: (1) The orbit of a planet with respect to the sun is an ellipse, the sun being in one of the foci. (2) The areas swept over by a vector drawn from the sun to a planet are proportioned to the times of describing them. (3) The squares of the times of revolution of two planets are in the ratio of the cubes of their mean distances.
Law binding, a plain style of leather binding, used for law books; called also law calf.
Law book, a book containing, or treating of, laws.
Law calf. See Law binding (above).
Law day.
(a)
Formerly, a day of holding court, esp. a court-leet.
(b)
The day named in a mortgage for the payment of the money to secure which it was given. (U. S.)
Law French, the dialect of Norman, which was used in judicial proceedings and law books in England from the days of William the Conqueror to the thirty-sixth year of Edward III.
Law language, the language used in legal writings and forms.
Law Latin. See under Latin.
Law lords, peers in the British Parliament who have held high judicial office, or have been noted in the legal profession.
Law merchant, or Commercial law, a system of rules by which trade and commerce are regulated; deduced from the custom of merchants, and regulated by judicial decisions, as also by enactments of legislatures.
Law of Charles (Physics), the law that the volume of a given mass of gas increases or decreases, by a definite fraction of its value for a given rise or fall of temperature; sometimes less correctly styled Gay Lussac's law, or Dalton's law.
Law of nations. See International law, under International.
Law of nature.
(a)
A broad generalization expressive of the constant action, or effect, of natural conditions; as, death is a law of nature; self-defense is a law of nature. See Law, 4.
(b)
A term denoting the standard, or system, of morality deducible from a study of the nature and natural relations of human beings independent of supernatural revelation or of municipal and social usages.
Law of the land, due process of law; the general law of the land.
Laws of honor. See under Honor.
Laws of motion (Physics), three laws defined by Sir Isaac Newton: (1) Every body perseveres in its state of rest or of moving uniformly in a straight line, except so far as it is made to change that state by external force. (2) Change of motion is proportional to the impressed force, and takes place in the direction in which the force is impressed. (3) Reaction is always equal and opposite to action, that is to say, the actions of two bodies upon each other are always equal and in opposite directions.
Marine law, or Maritime law, the law of the sea; a branch of the law merchant relating to the affairs of the sea, such as seamen, ships, shipping, navigation, and the like.
Mariotte's law. See Boyle's law (above).
Martial law.See under Martial.
Military law, a branch of the general municipal law, consisting of rules ordained for the government of the military force of a state in peace and war, and administered in courts martial.
Moral law, the law of duty as regards what is right and wrong in the sight of God; specifically, the ten commandments given by Moses. See Law, 2.
Mosaic law, or Ceremonial law. (Script.) See Law, 3.
Municipal law, or Positive law, a rule prescribed by the supreme power of a state, declaring some right, enforcing some duty, or prohibiting some act; distinguished from international law and constitutional law. See Law, 1.
Periodic law. (Chem.) See under Periodic.
Roman law, the system of principles and laws found in the codes and treatises of the lawmakers and jurists of ancient Rome, and incorporated more or less into the laws of the several European countries and colonies founded by them. See Civil law (above).
Statute law, the law as stated in statutes or positive enactments of the legislative body.
Sumptuary law. See under Sumptuary.
To go to law, to seek a settlement of any matter by bringing it before the courts of law; to sue or prosecute some one.
To take the law of, or To have the law of, to bring the law to bear upon; as, to take the law of one's neighbor.
Wager of law. See under Wager.
Synonyms: Justice; equity. Law, Statute, Common law, Regulation, Edict, Decree. Law is generic, and, when used with reference to, or in connection with, the other words here considered, denotes whatever is commanded by one who has a right to require obedience. A statute is a particular law drawn out in form, and distinctly enacted and proclaimed. Common law is a rule of action founded on long usage and the decisions of courts of justice. A regulation is a limited and often, temporary law, intended to secure some particular end or object. An edict is a command or law issued by a sovereign, and is peculiar to a despotic government. A decree is a permanent order either of a court or of the executive government. See Justice.



verb
Law  v. t.  Same as Lawe, v. t. (Obs.)



interjection
Law  interj.  An exclamation of mild surprise. (Archaic or Low)






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Law" Quotes from Famous Books



... the early age of thirty-three, as Solicitor-General, and retained that office through the elder Pitt's glorious administration. In 1762 he accepted from Lord Bute the Attorney-Generalship, in which position he had to deal with the difficult questions of constitutional law raised by the publication of John Wilkes's North Briton. In November of that year, however, he resigned office in consequence of the strong pressure put upon him by Pitt, and took leave of the King ...
— Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. - A Memoir • Lady Biddulph of Ledbury

... bride protests against accepting all that her mother-in-law wants to give her. There is but one thing that the old lady wishes to keep for herself; it is a little tin box with a withered flower, and it lies with her Bible and hymn-book, as sacred to ...
— The German Classics of The Nineteenth and Twentieth Centuries, Vol. IX - Friedrich Hebbel and Otto Ludwig • Various

... impatient with technical justice and may, perhaps, decide cases upon their merits or according to his own sympathies. We once knew a learned, able, and conscientious judge who, despite his many years' training in the law, was almost certain to decide a case in favor of the litigant who made the strongest appeal to his sympathies. The parent who knows nothing but the persuasive power of corporal punishment, will have little success in disciplining a child blessed ...
— Analyzing Character • Katherine M. H. Blackford and Arthur Newcomb

... coast when they fought free silver; was in the northwest when it campaigned for the referendum; in Wisconsin when they fought cigarettes and in Maine when the original thirsty population tried to upset the prohibition law; but of all places I've been in, and all campaigns I've been through the outskirts of, this woman's vote thing here has the rest looking friendly, peaceful and uninteresting!" he said to himself after the second day. ...
— Mixed Faces • Roy Norton

... that the Lord would provide such a successor, and, in Mr. James Wright, the prayer was answered. He was not chosen, as Mr. Muller's son-in-law, for the choice was made before his marriage to Lydia Muller was even thought of by him. For more than thirty years, even from his boyhood, Mr. Wright had been well known to Mr. Muller, and his growth in the things of God had been watched by him. For thirteen years ...
— George Muller of Bristol - His Witness to a Prayer-Hearing God • Arthur T. Pierson


More quotes...



Copyright © 2024 Free Translator.org