| 释义 |
▪ I. law, n.1|lɔː|
Forms: 1 laᵹu (oblique cases laᵹe, nom. and acc. pl. laᵹa, once laᵹan; in comb. lah-), 2 laȝwe, laȝa, 2–5 laȝe, 3 Layamon læȝe, læwe, 3 laha, 3–5 lagh(e, 3–7 lau(e, lawe, Sc. lauwe, 4 lach(t, laght, (lake), lauh, 4, 6 Sc. la, lawch, 5 Sc. laucht, laue, laugh, 5–9 Sc. lauch, 5– law.
[Late OE. (c 1000) laᵹu str. fem. (pl. laᵹa), a. prehistoric ON. *lagu (:—O.Icel. lǫg), pl. of lag neut.; in sing. the word meant in OIcel. ‘something laid or fixed’ (specific senses being, e.g. ‘layer, stratum’, ‘share in an undertaking’, ‘partnership’, ‘fixed or market price’, ‘set tune’, etc.); the pl. had the collective sense ‘law’, and in ONorw. its form became (as in OE.) a fem. sing.; cf. OSw. lagh neut. sing. and pl., law, Sw. lag, pl. lagar, Da. lov. The ON. lag corresponds to OS. -lag neut. (in the compounds aldar-lagu pl. destined length of life, or-lag fate, war):—OTeut. *lagom, f. root *lag-:—OAryan *logh- (:*legh-): see lay, lie vbs. The Lat. lēg-, lēx is not now generally believed to be cognate (being referred to the root *leg- of legĕre to gather, read, λέγειν to gather, say); but in many other langs. the word for ‘law’ is derived from roots meaning ‘to place’; cf., e.g., Eng. doom, Gr. θέµις, θεσµός, L. statutum, G. gesetz. The native word in OE. was ǽ: see æ.
As law is the usual Eng. rendering of L. lex, and to some extent of L. jus, and of Gr. νόµος, its development of senses has been in some degree affected by the uses of these words.]
I. A rule of conduct imposed by authority.
* Human law.
1. a. The body of rules, whether proceeding from formal enactment or from custom, which a particular state or community recognizes as binding on its members or subjects. (In this sense usually the law.) † Also, in early use, a code or system of rules of this kind.[As the word was in Scandinavian a plural, though adopted in OE. as a sing., this collective sense is etymologically prior to that of ‘specific enactment’ (sense 2).] a1000Laws of Ethelred vi. c. 37 (Schmid) ᵹif he hine laðian wille..do ðæt be ðam deopestan aðe..on Engla laᵹe, and on Dena laᵹe, be ðam ðe heora laᵹu si. 11..O.E. Chron. an. 1064 (Laud MS.) He niwade ðær Cnutes laᵹe. c1205Lay. 6305 Þa makede heo ane læȝe, and læide ȝeon þat leode. a1300Cursor M. 19270 Þe wick þai hald þe lau for drede. c1425Wyntoun Cron. iv. vii. 672 [He] governyd wytht his lauch the land. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 247 All offices had by dower..to be confiscat and spent to the use and custome of the law. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iv. i. 178 The Venetian Law Cannot impugne you as you do proceed. 1662Bk. Comm. Prayer Pref., Injoyned by the Lawe of the Land. 1726Swift Gulliver iv. v, But he was at a loss how it should come to pass, that the law, which was intended for every man's preservation, should be any man's ruin. 1764Goldsm. Trav. 386 Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law. 1785Paley Mor. Philos. Wks. 1825 IV. 184 The law of England constrains no man to become his own accuser. 1833H. Martineau Manch. Strike i. 10 Had we not our combinations, when combination was against the law? 1896Law Times Rep. LXXIII. 690/1 This court has no jurisdiction over the property in America; it is governed by the law of that country.
b. Often viewed, with more or less of personification, as an agent uttering or enforcing the rules of which it consists. Hence (b) colloq. (orig. U.S.), a policeman, the police; a sheriff.
1513More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 774 Then the lawe maketh me his garden. 1611Shakes. Wint. T. iv. iv. 715 This being done, let the Law goe whistle. 1628Sir J. Eliot Speech Parl. in Forster Life II. 124 The law designs to every man his own. 1728Young Love Fame i. (1757) 80 When the Law shews her teeth, but dares not bite. 1794Burke Corr. (1844) IV. 228 The law is wiser than cabal or interest. 1838Dickens O. Twist li, ‘If the law supposes that,’ said Mr. Bumble,..‘the law is a ass—a idiot’.
(b)1929M. A. Gill Underworld Slang, Law, police. 1935A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 121/2 The law, a police officer. 1944B. A. Botkin Treas. Amer. Folklore i. 131 There was plenty of precedent for Roy Bean in the usual Western ‘Law’ or sheriff. 1953W. Burroughs Junkie (1972) x. 104 We were in the third precinct about three hours and then the laws put us in the wagon and took us to Parish Prison. Ibid. xii. 121 Whenever a law needs money for a quick beer, he goes over by Lupita and waits for someone to walk out on the chance he may be holding a paper [containing narcotic]. 1955Publ. Amer. Dial. Soc. xxiv. 106 Some mobs have a strong prejudice against robbing any law, whatever he may be. 1958F. Norman Bang to Rights 152 Two law..came up to me and grabbed hold of me. 1962‘J. Bell’ Crime in our Time i. 13 He had only one idea. To get rid of ‘the law’, clinging to his car. He drove from side to side of the road in an effort to force Meehan off. 1972D. Lees Zodiac 5 Soon, car-loads of Maigret-type law would come screaming up the drive. 1972Times 6 June 18/6, I inquired of the Law where I might cash a cheque, and was directed to the nearest travel agency. 1973M. Woodhouse Blue Bone vi. 56 The Oxford law would know about this, I take it?
c. In proverbs and proverbial phrases. the law of the Medes and Persians, often used (with allusion to Dan. vi. 12) as the type of something unalterable.
1382Wyclif Dan. vi. 15 The lawe of Medis and Persis. 1564tr. P. Martyr's Comm. Judges xi. 189 b, It is an olde Prouerbe..Lawe and Country. For every region hath certaine customes of their owne, which cannot easelye be chaunged. 1816Scott Antiq. xxvi, Aweel, aweel, Maggie, ilka land has its ain lauch. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. ii, His word is no longer the law of the Medes and Persians, as it was at home. 1884Rider Haggard Dawn xxxv, Once given, like the law of the Medes and Persians, it altereth not.
†d. What the law awards; what is due according to law. Obs.
1470–85Malory Arthur viii. ii. 275 Wel said the King Melyodas, and therfor shal ye haue the lawe. And soo she was dampned..to be brent. 1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, i. iii. 214 This is the Law, and this Duke Humfreyes doome.
e. to wage one's law, wager of law: see wage v., wager n.
2. a. One of the individual rules which constitute the ‘law’ (sense 1) of a state or polity. In early use only pl. The plural has often a collective sense (after L. jura, leges) approaching sense 1.
a1023Wulfstan Hom. (1883) 275 Ræde ᵹe nu forð laᵹan gode fyrðor. 11..O.E. Chron. an. 1086 (Laud MS.) He læᵹde laᵹa..ðæt swa hwa swa sloᵹe heort oððe hinde ðæt hine man sceolde blendian. c1205Lay. 2078 And he heom onleide þat weoren lawen gode. 1297R. Glouc. (Rolls) 9642 William bastard..luþer lawes made ynou. a1300Cursor M. 12115 Of your laues i am vttan For erthli fader haf i nan. c1320Sir Tristr. 904 Tvo ȝere he sett þat land His lawes made he cri. c1400Apol. Loll. 63 To swilk lauis & to swilk maneris schuld ilk iuge obey. c1460Fortescue Abs. & Lim. Mon. ii. (1885) 112 Therfore it is that þe lawes seyn, quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xiv. 28 That all the lawis ar not sett by ane bene. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. IV, 7 b, He said that the lawes of the realme were in his head. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 382 b, Such thinges as were decreed in the counsel in fourmer yeares, ought not to have the force of a law. 1613Shakes. Hen. VIII, iii. ii. 334 His faults lye open to the Lawes. 1637Decree Star Chamb. §3 in Milton's Areop. (Arb.) 10 That all Bookes concerning the common Lawes of this Realme shall be printed by the especiall allowance of the Lords chiefe Justices. c1670Hobbes Dial. Com. Laws (1677) 32 A Law is the Command of him, or them that have the Soveraign Power. 1683Col. Rec. Pennsylv. I. 21 Other duties by any law or statute due to vs. 1690Child Disc. Trade (ed. 4) 61 The French peasantry are a slavish, cowardly people, because the laws of their country has made them slaves. a1715Burnet Own Time (1734) II. 189 By the Portian Law, no Citizen could be put to Death for any Crime whatsoever. 1735–8Bolingbroke On Parties 104 The Laws of the Land are known. 1843Carlyle Past & Pr. i. iii, And other idle Laws and Unlaws. 1856Knight Pop. Hist. Eng. I. xxiv. 364 The Saxon King and Confessor, for whose equal laws the people had been clamouring for two centuries.
b. Proverbs.
c1470Harding Chron. lxxxvi. v, Wronge lawes maketh shorte gouernaunce. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VI, 169 Tholde spoken proverbs, here toke place: New Lordes, new lawes. 1578Timme Caluine on Gen. 70 According to the common Proverb ‘Of evil manners spring good laws’. 1874T. Hardy Madding Crowd viii, ‘New lords new laws’, as the saying is.
3. In generalized sense.
a. Laws regarded as obeyed or enforced; controlling influence of laws; the condition of society characterized by the observance of the laws. Often in phrase law and order. Proverb: Necessity has (or knows) no law.
c1175Lamb Hom. 109 Ȝif þe biscop bið ȝemeles, and þet folc butan steore eft butan laȝe. c1250Ten Abuses in O.E. Misc. 184 Lond wið-ute laȝe [v.r. lawe]. a1327Pol. Songs (Camden) 150 Thus wil walketh in londe, and lawe is for-lore. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. Prol. 122 The Kyng and the comune and kynde with the thridde Shope lawe and lewte eche man to knowe his owne. a1555Ridley Lament. Ch. (1566) D iv, The latter reason..includeth a necessitie which, after the common sayinge, hathe no lawe. 1598Florio Worlde of Wordes 201/2 Legitimo..according to law and order. 1601? Marston Pasquil & Kath. I. 68 Poore and neede hath no law. 1653H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. xlvi. 268 Necessity, which hath no law, compelled us thereunto. 1796Deb. Congress U.S. 20 Dec. (1849) 1689 A military diploma, expressive of his patriotism and attachment to law and order. 1846Nat. Intelligencer (Washington) 24 Mar. 3/4 The ‘Law and Order’ party has clearly fulfilled..its public mission. 1847Marryat Childr. N. Forest xvii, Her father could not do otherwise. Necessity has no law. 1881in T. W. Reid Life W. E. Forster (1888) II. viii. 371 To support the Lord-Lieutenant..in maintaining law and order in this country [Ireland]. 1893[see comfortably adv. 5 a]. 1932G. F.-H. Berkeley Italy in Making I. iii. 42 This repression continued until..even his allies finally began to perceive that law-and-order can be bought at too dear a price. 1952N.Y. Times 11 Mar. 11/1 (heading) Ex-sergeant rode to power on cry of ‘Law and Order’, seizing reins in 1933. 1962S. Wynter Hills of Hebron ix. 118 The Commissioner..had come to use words like ‘duty’, ‘law and order’ to cover up a lack of imagination. 1967P. Henderson William Morris ii. xii. 281 The SFD and the League..started a campaign for free speech, which suddenly brought Morris into conflict with the forces of Law and Order. 1968Economist 5 Oct. 41/3 Mr Nixon and..Mr Humphrey are both making concessions to this overriding concern about ‘law and order’. 1970New Yorker 26 Sept. 137/1 If it happens that rightists are successful in capturing most of the law-and-order vote, then, of course, the country will move to the right politically. 1972Daily Tel. 24 May 15 The published motions cover a wider and more immediate political field than usual—from the economy and unemployment to the media, Ulster and law and order. 1973Black World Dec. 19/1 A sense of determinism that is diametrically opposed to the ruler-class ‘law-and-order’ and individualism.
b. (a) Laws in general, regarded as a class or species of human institutions. court of law: see court n.1 11. (b) That department of knowledge or study of which laws are the subject-matter; jurisprudence.
14..Sir Beues 3573 (MS. N.) Sir King, þat may not ben don bi lawe. c1430Hymns Virg. 61 Quod resoun, ‘in age of .xx. ȝeer, Goo to oxenford, or lerne lawe’. 1611Florio, Lecito, lawfull, good in law. 1635Sibbes Soul's Confl. xvii. (1833) 136 Law being the joint reason and consent of many men for the public good hath a use for guidance of all action that fall under the same. 1644Milton Educ. 5 After this, they are to dive into the grounds of law, and legall justice. 1680Dryden Ovid's Epist. Pref., He was design'd to the Study of the Law. 1724Swift Drapier's Lett. vii. Wks. 1761 III. 140 In all free nations I take the proper definition of law to be, The will of the majority of those who have the property in land. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 53 Juries do not sit in a court of conscience, but of law. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) I. 114 A person having an estate..by the operation of some principle of law. 1821J. Q. Adams in C. Davies Metr. Syst. iii. (1871) 113 The pound of 15 ounces..has never been recognised in England by law. 1841–4Emerson Ess., Experience Wks. (Bohn) I. 188 The intellect..judges law as well as fact. 1842J. H. Newman Par. Serm. VI. xxiii. 359 He consults men learned in the law. 1882Hinsdale Garfield & Educ. ii. 295 If you become a lawyer, you must remember that the science of law is not fixed like geometry, but is a growth which keeps pace with the progress of society. 1891Law Times XCII. 99/2 This natural sequence hardened first into custom and then into law.
c. † in law (of wedlock): lawfully married. Also in the combinations brother-in-law, father-in-law, etc., for which see those words; and in † law's father, † father in the law, rarely used for ‘father-in-law’; so also † mother of law.[Cf. 16th c. F. pere en loi de mariage (Godef.).] c1230Hali Meid. 21 Þis is tenne hare song þat beon ilahe of wedlac. c1250Gen. & Ex. 2764 To wife in laȝe he hire nam. 1538Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 154 Ionat Barbour, his moder of law. 1552Latimer Serm. 1st Sund. Epiph. (1584) 301 b, The house where Jesus was, with his mother, and Joseph his Father in the lawe. 1593Queen Elizabeth Boeth. i. pr. iv. 12 My holy lawes fathr Symmacus,..defendes vs from all suspicion of this cryme. [1594Shakes. Rich. III, iv. i. 24 Their Aunt I am in law, in loue their Mother. 1596― Tam. Shr. iv. v. 60 And now by Law, as well as reuerent age, I may intitle thee my louing Father.]
d. In more comprehensive sense: Rules or injunctions that must be obeyed. to give (the) law (to): to exercise undisputed sway; to impose one's will † upon (another). † to have (the) law to do something: to be commanded. † law will I: arbitrary rule, making one's own will law.
a1225Leg. Kath. 779 Ne lið hit nawt to þe to leggen lahe upon me. c1340Cursor M. 5729 (Fairf.) Moyses had þe lagh to kepe to his eldefadere shepe þat was þe prest of madian. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints ii. (Paulus) 202 To thre knychttis þane wes he tawcht, þat hym to sla son has lacht. c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 306 Who shal yeue a louere any lawe? a1564Becon Catech. Wks. 1564 I. 495 To conuince them, not with fyre & fagot..or with lawe will I. 1601R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 38 We have seen the Portugals, by reason of their sea forces..to have given the law to those famous princes. 1617Moryson Itin. ii. 63 He hoped shortly to give law to their irregular humours. 1656B. Harris Parival's Iron Age (1659) 142 Every body stood mute, at the expectation of a success, which was to give the Law. 1712Swift Proposal for correct. Eng. Tongue Miscell. (1727) I. 327 A Succession of affected Phrases, and new conceited Words..borrowed..from those, who, under the Character of Men of Wit and Pleasure, pretend to give the Law. 1726–31Tindal Rapin's Hist. Eng. (1743) II. 110 The Gantois seeing their neighbours so powerful and able to give them law. 1775Johnson Tax. no Tyr. 79 No man ever could give law to language. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. iii. I. 397 In literature she gave law to the world. 1852Thackeray B. Lyndon i, For a time..Mr. Barry gave he law at Castle Brady. 1866Conington æneid v. 133 The wind gives law, your toil is vain.
predicatively.1842Tennyson Dora 96 You knew my word was law, and yet you dared To slight it. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. ii, Like a good and dutiful son, however, his father's wishes were law.
4. a. With defining word, indicating some one of the branches into which law, as an object of study or exposition, may be divided, according to the matter with which it is concerned, as commercial law, ecclesiastical, etc. law, the law of banking, law of evidence, etc.; or according to the source from which it is derived, as statute law, customary law, case-law (see case n.1), etc. (the) canon law: see canon n. 1 b. See also civil law, common law. martial law: see martial.
b. both laws [after med.L. (doctor, etc.) utriusque juris]: in mediæval use referring to the Civil and the Canon Law; in modern Scotland, the Roman Civil Law and the municipal law of the country.
1577–87Holinshed Hist. Scot. 284/1 Peter Mallart doctor of both lawes. 1808Scott Mem. in Lockhart i, We attended the regular classes of both laws in the University of Edinburgh.
c. international law, the law of nations, under which nations are regarded as individual members of a common polity, bound by a common rule of agreement or custom; opposed to municipal law, the rules binding in local jurisdictions (see municipal).
The term law of nations (L. jus gentium) meant in Roman use the rules common to the law of all nations (often coupled with law of nature in sense 9 c; so in Shakes. Hen. V, ii. iv. 80 and Troil. ii. ii. 184). The transition to the mod. sense was facilitated by the appeal to ‘the law of nations’ in relation to such matters as the treatment of ambassadors or the obligation to observe treaties.
a1548Hall Chron., Edw. IV, 229 He was an officer of armes (to whom credite, by the lawe of all nacions, ought to be geven). 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. x. §12 There is a third kind of law which touches all such several bodies politic, so far forth as one of them hath public commerce with another. And this third is the Law of Nations. c1651Hobbes Rhet. (1681) 39 The Law or Custom of Nations. 1723Pres. State Russia II. 283 Beaten, and contrary to the Law of Nations, taken into Custody. 1769Blackstone Comm. IV. 66 The law of nations is a system of rules..established by universal consent among the civilized inhabitants of the world. 1870Pall Mall G. 24 Dec. 10 Between municipal law..and international law, there is only a qualified and even a somewhat remote analogy. 1896Lord Russell of Killowen in Law Quart. Rev. XII. 313 The aggregate of the rules to which nations have agreed to conform in their conduct towards one another are properly to be designated ‘International Law’. Ibid. 317 International Law, as such, includes only so much of the law of morals or of right reason or of natural law (whatever these phrases may cover) as nations have agreed to regard as International Law. 1899Justice Gray in U.S. Rep. clxxv. 700 International law is part of our law, and must be ascertained and administered by the courts of justice of appropriate jurisdiction, as often as questions of right depending upon it are duly presented for their determination.
5. In English technical use applied in a restricted sense to the Statute and Common Law, in contradistinction to equity.
1591Lambarde Archeion (1635) 68 Besides his Court of meere Law, he must..reserve to himselfe..a certaine soveraigne and preheminent Power, by which he may both supply the want, and correct the rigour of that Positive or written Law. 1745,1765[see equity 4]. 1818Cruise Digest (ed. 2) III. 460 He would give law and equity, and not pronounce upon law and equity. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. lxii, Did you ever know English law, or equity either, plain and to the purpose?
6. Applied predicatively to decisions or opinions on legal questions to denote that they are correct. Also good law or bad law.
1593[see 1 d]. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. Introd. 70 If it be found that the former decision is manifestly absurd or unjust, it is declared, not that such a sentence was bad law, but that it was not law. 179.Wolcot (P. Pindar) Expost. Odes vi, What's sound at Hippocrene, the Poet's Spa, Is not at Westminster sound law! 1891Ld. Coleridge in Law Times Rep. LXV. 580/1 We are unable to concur in these dicta, and speaking with all deference we think they are not law.
7. a. (Usually the law.) The profession which is concerned with the exposition of the law, with pleading in the courts, and with the transaction of business requiring skilled knowledge of law; the profession of a lawyer. Orig. in man of law (now somewhat arch.), a lawyer; so † (a gentleman) toward the law.
1340Hampole Pr. Consc. 5942 Men of laghe [er halden]..to travayle and to counsaile þam þat askes counsayle. c1386Chaucer Prol. 309 A Sergeant of the lawe, war and wys. ― Man of Law's Prol. Introd. 33 ‘Sir man of lawe’ quod he, ‘so have ye blis Tel us a tale anon’. c1460Towneley Myst. xxx. 8 Ther may no man of lagh help with no quantyce. 1551Robinson tr. More's Utop. ii. (Arb.) 128 Euery man should tel the same tale before the iudge that he wold tel to his man of law. 1560J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 473 Leaving the practise of the law. 1563B. Googe Eglogs (Arb.) 75 Lawe gyues the gayne, and Physycke fyls the Purse. 1566Acts & Constit. Scotl. To Rdr. {cross}iij, Our Souerane Lady seing the Lawis..to be for the maist part unknawin, bot to the Iugeis, and men of Law. 1592Greene Art Conny Catch. iii. 14 They espied a Gentleman toward the lawe entring in..and a countrey Clyent going with him. c1780Cowper Jackdaw v, The world, with all its motley rout, Church, army, physic, law. Mod. Three of his brothers are in the law.
b. Legal knowledge; legal acquirements.
1630Bp. W. Bedell in Ussher's Lett. (1686) 454 This Protestation having neither Latin, nor Law, nor common Sence, doth declare the Skill of him that drew it. 1645Milton Colast. Wks. 1851 IV. 348 These made the Champarty, hee contributed the Law, and both joynd in the Divinity. 1884Church Bacon iii. 63 Coke thoroughly disliked Bacon. He thought lightly of his law.
8. a. The action of the courts of law, as a means of procuring redress of grievances or enforcing claims; judicial remedy. Frequent in phrases to go to († the) law, to have or take the law of or on (a person), † to call (a person) unto the law, † to draw into laws. Hence occas. used = recourse to the courts, litigation. † the day of law: the day of trial.
c1450Holland Howlat 224 The crovss Capone..Was officiale..that the law leidis In caussis consistoriale. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xiii. 79 Sum bydand the law layis land in wed. 1523Ld. Berners Froiss. I. xii. 11 That she and her sonne shulde take ryght and lawe on them, accordyng to theyr desertis. 1526Tindale 1 Cor. vi. 1 Howe dare one of you..goo to lawe vnder the wicked? 1535Coverdale Prov. xxv. 8 Be not haistie to go to the lawe. 1562J. Heywood Prov. & Epigr. (1867) 193 You beyng a pleader at law, Pray hir to let fall thaction at law now. 1565T. Randolph in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. II. 198 The Daye of Lawe agaynste the iiii Bourgois men of thys towne is lyke to holde. 1573L. Lloyd Pilgr. Princes (1607) 133 Being striken and spurned by the same man, Socrates was counselled to call the same vnto the law before the Judges. 1596Spenser State Irel. Wks. (Globe) 623/1 Soe as it was not..possible to drawe him into lawes..it is hard for everye tryfling dett..to be driven to lawe. c1630Risdon Surv. Devon §47 (1810) 54 There was a long suit in law. 1677A. Yarranton Eng. Improv. 24 For ten years there will be more Law than ever to clear up Titles. 1711Addison Spect. No 122 ⁋4 A Fellow famous for taking the Law of every Body. 1762–71H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) V. 234 Dubosc, with whom he broke and went to law. 1780Newgate Cal. V. 27 Surely no man in his senses would deliberately embark in law. 1796Paine Writ. (1895) III. 239 A sharper..may find a way..to cheat some other party, without that party being able, as the phrase is, to take the law of him. 1800M. Edgeworth Castle Rackrent Gloss. 24 ‘I'll have the law of you, so I will!’—is the saying of an Englishman who expects justice. 1809Malkin Gil Blas i. v. ⁋11 The hangers-on of the law. 1848Thackeray Van. Fair vi. 52 ‘There's a hackney-coachman down stairs..vowing he'll have the law of you’. Ibid. vii. 61 ‘She was as bad as he’, said Tinker. ‘She took the law of every one of her tradesmen’. 1891E. Kinglake Australian at H. 35 The very name of ‘Law’ is a bogie that frightens a man out of his wits.
b. transf. to take the law into one's own hands (or † fists): to redress one's own grievance, or punish an offender, without obtaining judicial assistance. to have the law in one's own hands: to possess the means of redress, to be master of the situation.
1573G. Harvey Letter-bk. (Camden) 3 The law was now in there own hands. 1847E. Brontë Wuthering Heights I. vii. 129 Next time, Master Edgar, take the law into your own fists. 1875B. Jowett tr. Plato's Dialogues (ed. 2) III. 63 Young men will take the law into their own hands. 1877C. M. Yonge Cameos 3rd ser. vii. 63 Cade took the law into his own hands. 1902A. Bennett Grand Babylon Hotel xxvii. 300, I have a few questions to put to you, and it will depend on how you answer them whether I give you up to the police or take the law into my own hands. 1942A. Bryant Yrs. of Endurance xiv. 333 The industrial workers and the starving peasants, deprived of their patrimony by enclosures, took the law into their own hands.
c. Halifax law, Lydford law: the summary procedure of certain local tribunals which had or assumed the power of inflicting sentence of death on thieves; the rule proverbially ascribed to them was ‘hang first, try afterwards’. † Stafford law: ? punningly for a thrashing. Cf. Lynch law.
1565Jewel Repl. Harding (1611) 356 But heere he thought..to call vs Theeues, and wicked Judges, and to charge vs with the Law of Lydford. 1589Hay any Work A iij, Non would be so groshead as to gather that I threatned him with blowes, and to deale by Stafford law. a1641Wentworth Let. to Ld. Mountmorris in N. & Q. 5th Ser. IV. 16 Hallifaxe lawe hath ben executed in kinde, I am already hanged, and now wee cum to examine and consider of the evidence. 1710Brit. Apollo II. No. 3. 5/2 First Hang and Draw, Then hear the cause by Lidford Law.
** Divine law.
9. The body of commandments which express the will of God with regard to the conduct of His intelligent creatures. Also (with a, the, and pl.) a particular commandment.
a. gen. So God's (Christ's law), the law of God.
a1023Wulfstan Hom. (1883) 158 Godes laᵹe healdan. c1175Lamb. Hom. 55 Halde we godes laȝe. c1205Lay. 14803 He..tahte þan folke godes læȝe. c1275Passion our Lord 674 in O.E. Misc. 56 Seoþþe in alle londes hi eoden vor to prechen, and..godes lawe techen. a1300Cursor M. 2690 Ful wel þis lagh sal he yeme. c1330Spec. Gy Warw. 38 A good man..Þat liuede al in godes lawe. c1380Wyclif Serm. Sel. Wks. I. 26 To þis ende shulden clerkes traveile..for love of Goddis lawe. 1382― Rom. vii. 25, I my silf by resoun of the soule serue to the lawe of God. c1440Promp. Parv. 289/2 Law of Godde. c1485Digby Myst. (1882) iii. 1857 Crystes servont and yower to be, & þe lave of hym ever to fulfyll. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII 246 To be observed by christen men, as..consonant to the law of God. 1683Tryon Way to Health xix. (1697) 419 The good and holy Fear of the Lord, and his Innocent Law.
b. as communicated by express revelation, esp. in the Bible. Hence occas. the Scriptures themselves.
c1025Rule St. Benet (Logeman) 88 Si ᵹeræd ætforan þam cuman seo godcunde laᵹe. c1175Lamb. Hom. 81 In þisse worlde [sc. the age before Moses] nas na laᵹe, ne na larþeu. a1300E.E. Psalter i. 2 Bot in lagh ofe iauerd his wille be ai, And his lagh thinke he night and dai. 1567Good & Godly Ball. (S.T.S.) 190 Goddis word and lawis the peple misknawis. 1611Bible Ps. i. 2 His delight is in the Law of the Lord. 1719Watts Ps. i. (Short Metre) 5 Who..makes the Law of God His Study and Delight.
c. as implanted by nature in the human mind, or as capable of being demonstrated by reason. Formerly often the law of nature (now rarely, because of the frequency of that expression in sense 17), † law of kind, natural law, the law of reason, etc.
The expression law of nature (lex naturæ or naturalis, jus naturale) in Cicero, Seneca, and the Roman jurists, is ultimately derived from the ϕυσικὸν δίκαιον of Aristotle.
c1225Leg. Kath. 964 Hit is aȝein riht ant aȝein leaue of euch cundelich lahe. a1300Cursor M. 28491 (Cott.) And haf i broken wit foly, Þe lagh o kynd thoru licheri. c1340Ibid. 1576 (Trin.) Þe lawe of soþenes ny of kynde Wolde þei no tyme fynde. 1390Gower Conf. III. 272 But he the bestes wolde binde Only to lawes of nature. c1470G. Ashby Active Policy Prince 695 Poems 34 If forgoten be al lawe positife, Remembre the noble lawe of nature. 1484Caxton Fables of æsop 11. Proem, The Athenyens the whiche lyued after the lawe of Kynde. 1513More in Grafton Chron. (1568) II. 774 The lawe of nature wylleth the mother to keepe the childe. 1531St. German Doctor & Stud. i. ii, The lawe of nature..consydered generally..is referred to all creatures as well resonable as vnresonable..the lawe of nature specially consydered, whiche is also called the lawe of reason, parteyneth onely to creatures reasonable, that is man..As to the orderyng of the dedes of man, it is preferred before the lawe of god. And it is writen in the herte of euery man. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. V 73 b, I shuld not do that whiche by the lawes of nature and reason I ought to do, which is to rendre kyndnes for kyndnes. 1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. viii. §8 The Law of Reason or Human Nature. §9 Laws of Reason. 1597Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, iii. ii. 357. a 1614 Donne βιαθανατος (1644) 34 That part of Gods Law which bindes alwayes, bound before it was written..and that is the Law of nature. 1692South Serm. (1697) I. 482 The Law of Nature,..I take to be nothing else, but the mind of God, signified to a Rational agent by the bare discourse of his Reason. 1712Berkeley Passive Obed. §33 Self-preservation is..the very first and fundamental law of nature. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. Introd. §2. 39 This will of his maker is called the law of nature. 1780Bentham Princ. Legisl. Wks. 1843 I. 9 Instead of the phrase, Law of Nature, you have sometimes Law of Reason. 1878Gladstone Prim. Homer 109 Natural law was profoundly revered, while conventional law hardly yet existed.
10. a. The system of moral and ceremonial precepts contained in the Pentateuch; also in a narrower sense applied to the ceremonial portion of the system considered separately. More explicitly, the law of Moses, the Mosaic law or Jewish law, etc.
c1000ælfric O.T. in Grein Ags. Prosa I. 5 God him sette æ, þæt ys open laᵹu, þam folce to steore. c1200Ormin 1961 Annd tatt wass ned tatt, ȝho wass þa Wiþþ Godess laȝhe weddedd. a1225Leg. Kath. 2500, I þe munt of Synai þer Moyses fatte þe lahe et ure lauerd. c1250O. Kent. Serm. in O.E. Misc. 26 Þo dede he somoni alle þo wyse clerekes þet kuþe þe laghe. a1300Cursor M. 6451 heading, (Gött.) Tell i sal of moyses law. c1330Spec. Gy Warw. 358 At þe mount of Synay..þar god him ȝaf þe firste lawe. 1398Trevisa Barth. De P.R. ix. xxvi. (1495) 363 Alway in the Saterdaye preestes declaryd and expownyd the lawe to the peple. a1400–50Alexander 1546 Iustis of iewry & iogis of the lawe. c1585R. Browne Answ. Cartwright 54 They read in the Booke of the Lawe. 1611Bible Rom. ii. 14 The Gentiles which haue not the Law, doe by nature the things contained in the Law.
b. In expressed or implied opposition to the Gospel: The Mosaic dispensation; also, the system of Divine commands and of penalties imposed for disobedience contained in the Scriptures, considered apart from the offer of salvation by faith in Christ.
1382Wyclif Gal. iii. 11 No man is iustified in the lawe anentis God. 1529Frith Pistle Chr. Rdr. (1829) 461 The law was given us, that we might know what to do and what to eschew. 1595Shakes. John ii. i. 180 The Canon of the Law is laide on him. 1758S. Hayward Serm. i. 2 To guard the Galatians against a dependence on the law. 1827Keble Chr. Y. Easter Sunday 20 No brighter..Than Reason's or the Law's pale beams. 1842J. H. Newman Par. Serm. VI. i. 2 Vain were all the deeds of the Law. 1859J. Cumming Ruth vi. 109 By what he suffered I escape the law's curse.
c. The Pentateuch as distinguished from the other portions of the Old Testament Scriptures.
1382Wyclif John viii. 5 Moses in the lawe comaundide vs for to stoone siche. 1526Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W. 1531) 298 b, O very messyas, promysed in the lawe for mannes redempcyon. 1611Bible 2 Macc. xv. 9 Comforting them out of the law, and the prophets.
†11. A ‘dispensation’. the old law: the Mosaic dispensation, the ‘Old Covenant’; also, the books of the Old Testament. the new law: the Gospel dispensation.
c1000ælfric's Past. Ep. xl. in Thorpe Laws II. 380 Nu is seo ealde laᵹu ᵹeendod æfter Cristes to-cyme. a1175Cott. Hom. 235 Þas fif cheðen beoð fif laȝan for þan þe god is þurh þesen ȝecnowe. c1200Vices & Virtues (1888) 7 Aiðer ðurh ðare ealde laȝwe and iec ðurh ðare niewe. c1200Trin. Coll. Hom. 3 Aduent bitocneð þre time, on þe was bi-fore þe old laȝe, þe oðer was on þe holde laȝe, and þe þridde was on þe newe laȝe. a1225Ancr. R. 58 Uorþi was ihoten a Godes half iðen olde lawe þæt put were euer iwrien. a1300Cursor M. 21285 Tuin axils er tuin laghs. Ibid. 21644 Þe licknes o þis tre sa tru, In þe ald lagh was be-for þe neu. a1340Hampole Psalter cxviii. 99, I vndirstode bettire þan þe docturs of þe alde laghe. c1450Compendious olde treat. (Arb.) 172 As kinge Antioche came in the ende wellnygh of ye olde lawe, and brent the bokes of gods lawe..So now Antichrist..brenneth nowe nygh thende of ye new lawe theuangely of Christe. 1542Becon Potation for Lent Wks. 1564 I. 50 b, Christ the true lyght of the world is com, therfore those Ceremonies of the olde law are nowe nomore necessary.
†12. A religious system; the Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or Pagan religion. by my law: by my faith; also to swear one's law. Cf. lay n.3
a1225Leg. Kath. 1349 We leaueð þi lahe..Ant turneð alle to Criste. c1290S. Eng. Leg. I. 17/564 Heore lawe nas riȝt nouȝt, Þat ne bi-liefden nouȝt on þe rode. a1300K. Horn 65 Hi here laȝe asoke. 13..Sir Beues (A.) 1780 Þe seue kniȝtes of heþen lawe Beues slouȝ that ilche stounde. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints vii. (Jacobus Minor) 190 Faraseis & wysmene of Iowis lach mad answere þane. a1400Pistill of Susan 3 He was so lele in his lawe. c1400Mandeville (1839) xxiii. 252 Thei suffren, that folk of alle Lawes may peysibely duellen amonges hem. a1400–50Alexander 4306 In him we lely beleue & in na laȝe ellis. c1450St. Cuthbert (Surtees) 4824 And forsake his paynym lawe. c1477Caxton Jason 86 b, By my lawe sire sayd Mopsius I see no way. c1500Melusine xlix. 324 He sware hys lawe that lytel or nought he shuld entrete hym. 1613Purchas Pilgrimage (1614) 312 But the Mufti being highest Interpreter of their Law..must indeed have preeminence. 1685Stillingfl. Orig. Brit. i. 9 Here the first Disciples of the Catholick Law found an ancient Church.
*** Combined applications.
13. Often used as the subject of propositions equally applying to human and divine law. In juristic and philosophical works often with definitions intended to include also the senses explained in branches II and III below. (See quots.)
1594Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. ii. §1 That which doth assign unto each thing the kind, that which doth moderate the force and power, that which doth appoint the form and measure, of working, the same we term a Law. Ibid. xvi. §8 Of Law there can be no less acknowledged, than that her seat is the bosom of God, her voice the harmony of the world. 1611Bible Transl. Pref. 3 The Scripture is..a Pandect of profitable lawes, against rebellious spirits. 1651Hobbes Leviath. ii. xxvi. 137 My designe being not to shew what is Law here, and there, but what is Law. 1690Locke Govt. ii. vi. §57 Law, in its proper Notion, is..the Direction of a free and intelligent Agent to his proper Interest. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. 39 This then is the general signification of law, a rule of action dictated by some superior being. 1836J. Gilbert Chr. Atonem. Notes (1852) 344 Law speaks the language of indignation against crime. 1889Ruskin Præterita III. 159 Men of perfect genius are known in all centuries by their perfect respect to all law.
II. Without reference to an external commanding authority.
†14.
a. Custom, customary rule or usage; habit, practice, ‘ways’. law of (the) land: custom of the country. at thieves law: after the manner of thieves. Obs.
c1175Lamb Hom. 25 Þenne hafest þu þes hundes laȝe, Þe nu speoweð and ef[t] hit fret. c1200Ormin 2373 Ȝho wollde ben Rihht laȝhelike fesstnedd Wiþþ macche, swa summ i þatt ald wass laȝhe to ben fesstned. c1220Bestiary 23 Ðe ðridde laȝe haneð ðe leun. a1225Juliana 10 Ȝef þu wult leauen þe lahen þat tu list in. a1300K. Horn 1109 (Ritson) An horn hue ber an honde, For that wes lawe of londe. 13..Gaw & Gr. Knt. 790 Enbaned vnder þe abataylment in þe best lawe. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 322 Þe lord of Badenauh..Lyued at theues lauh. a1400–50Alexander 4402 A-nothire laȝe is in ȝoure lande at oure lord hatis. 1535Coverdale 1 Sam. viii. 9 Yet testifye vnto them and shewe them the lawe of the kynge that shall raigne ouer them. 15..Adam Bel, etc. in Hazl. E.P.P. II. 158 Whan they came before the kyng, As it was the lawe of the lande, They kneled downe.
†b. Old Cant. With distinctive word prefixed: A particular branch of the art of thieving.
c1550Dice-Play B iv b, Thus giue they their owne conueyance the name of cheting law, so do they other termes, as sacking law: high law, Fygging law, and such lyke. 1591Greene Disc. Coosnage (1859) 33 Hereupon doe they give their false conveyance the name of Conny-catching Lawe, as there be also other Lawes, as High-Law, Sacking Law, Figging Law, Cheting Lawe, Barnards Lawe.
†15. What is or is considered right or proper; justice or correctness of conduct. Also right and law; against, in, out of, with law. of a law: with good reason. Obs.
c1200Ormin 6256 Þe birrþ himm biddenn don þe rihht & laȝhe. c1250Gen. & Ex. 536 Wapmen bi-gunnen quad mester..A ðefis kinde, a-ȝenes laȝe. 13..Guy Warw. (A.) 410 Bi mi trewþe..Schal Y mi fader þe tiding bere, Thou worþest to hewen..Oþer wiþ wilde hors to-drawe For þi foly, & þat wer lawe. c1330R. Brunne Chron. (1810) 113 Dauid did but lawe, Mald had his seruage. c1340Cursor M. 13052 (Trin.) Ȝitt is she þi broþer wif whom þou shuldes not haue with lawe. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 128 To deme betwen al maner of folke..wythout goynge assyd owt of lawe. a1400–50Alexander 4666 Neuir-þe-les of a laȝe hald we vs driȝtins. c1440York Myst. viii. 10 Alle in lawe to lede þer lyffe.
16. a. A rule of action or procedure; one of the rules defining correct procedure in an art or department of action, or in a game. † Also, manner of life. Phr.a law unto (or to) himself (or themselves, etc.).
a1225[see 3 d]. a1300Cursor M. 7940 Godd mad þe king of israel, To lede þe folk wit laghes lel. 1422tr. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv. 149 Ouer al thynge the wysdome of a kyng sholde his law gouerne aftyr the law of god. c1460Towneley Myst. xxviii. 44 Wherfor in woman is no laghe ffor she is withoutten aghe. 1611Bible Rom. ii. 14 These [the Gentiles] hauing not the Law, are a Law vnto themselues. 1638Baker tr. Balzac's Lett. (vol. III) 102 And the lawes of decencie are so ancient, that they seem to be a part of the ancient religion. 1671L. Addison W. Barbary 50 Contrary to all Ingenuity and Laws of Hospitality. Ibid. 52 That he who aspires after..Conquest, ought not to binde himself to the Laws of a fair Gamester. 1683Tryon Way to Health xix. (1697) 430 The Lord endued Man with the Spirit of Understanding, by which he might be a Guide and Law unto himself. 1736Butler Anal. i. iv. 134 A few who shamelessly avow..their mere will and pleasure to be their law of life. 1742Hoyle (title) A short treatise on the game of Whist. Containing the laws of the game. 1837Sir W. Hamilton Logic v. (1866) I. 78 For free intelligences, a law is an ideal necessity given in the form of a precept, which we ought to follow. 1856Froude Hist. Eng. I. i. 29 Self⁓protection is the first law of life. 1867(title) The laws of Football, as played at Rugby School. 1877E. R. Conder Bas. Faith vi. 259 A moral law states what ought to be. 1878R. H. Davis (title) A law unto herself. 1930J. S. Huxley Bird-Watching iv. 75 Every male [ruff] is a law unto himself. Some grow black ruffs, others ruffs that are white, sandy, brown, grey, pepper-and-salt, and half a dozen other shades. 1942Partridge Usage and Abusage (1947) 129/1 Certain idiosyncratic, law-unto-themselves writers fall into vagaries when..they depart from those rules. 1962A. Nisbett Technique Sound Studio xii. 221 Electronic music is a law to itself... It really can be fundamentally different from conventional music. 1965M. Spark Mandelbaum Gate ii. 23 ‘What was your father's Law?’..‘I'm afraid he was a law unto himself.’ 1968Listener 27 June 850/1 Hogarth is very much a law to himself.
b. The code or body of rules recognized in a specified department of action. Also law of arms: the recognized custom of professional soldiers; † also, the rules of heraldry; law of honour (see honour n. 9 h).
a1300Cursor M. 26276 Lagh o penance will þat [etc]. 1486Bk. St. Albans E iij, By the law of venery as I dare vnder take. c1500in Q. Eliz. Acad. (1879) 100 Law of armys disponys ffor theme be sett and portrait with pictouris. 1530Palsgr. 237/2 Lawe of armes, droict darmes. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. VIII, 255 He might have kepte theim in straite prison, by juste lawe of Armes. 1557Tottell's Misc. (Arb.) 139 Of louers lawe he toke no cure. 1626Jackson Creed viii. xiv. §2 Unto Satan the professed rebel against him..he did vouchsafe the benefit of the law of Armes or duel.
c. Phr. law of the jungle, the code of survival in jungle life, now usu. with ref. to the superiority of brute force or self-interest in the struggle for survival.
1894Kipling Jungle Bk. 31 Baloo was teaching him the Law of the Jungle... Young wolves will only learn as much of the Law of the Jungle as applies to their own pack and tribe. Ibid. 34 A man's cub..must learn all the Law of the Jungle. 1895― 2nd Jungle Bk. 23 Now this is the Law of the Jungle—as old and as true as the sky;..the strength of the Pack is the Wolf, and the strength of the Wolf is the Pack. 1927C. A. & M. R. Beard Rise Amer. Civilization I. ix. 403 So the law of the jungle prevailed; and in the frightful contest that followed, the rights of neutrals were as chaff before a hurricane. 1950A. Bryant Age of Elegance x. 329 In the manufacturing districts..the old framework of society..broke down completely. Here only the law of the jungle held. 1951M. McLuhan Mech. Bride 107/2 Mr. Queeny derives his ‘law of the jungle’ versus ‘crusading idealist’ from this later nineteenth-century phase of the older split. 1969New Yorker 6 Sept. 33 (caption) May I remind you that here law and order means the law of the jungle. 1974Times 4 Mar. 7/4 The Duke said that a purely materialistic society inevitably succumbed to the law of the jungle and political dictatorship.
III. Scientific and philosophical uses.
17. a. In the sciences of observation, a theoretical principle deduced from particular facts, applicable to a defined group or class of phenomena, and expressible by the statement that a particular phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions be present. In the physical sciences, and occasionally in others, called more explicitly law of nature or natural law.
The ‘laws of nature’, by those who first used the term in this sense, were viewed as commands imposed by the Deity upon matter, and even writers who do not accept this view often speak of them as ‘obeyed’ by the phenomena, or as agents by which the phenomena are produced.
1665Phil. Trans. I. 31 The changes be varied according to very odd Laws. 1665Boyle Occas. Refl. iv. vi, The Wisdome..of God does..confine the creatures to the establish'd Laws of Nature. 1690Locke Hum. Und. i. iii. §13 A law of Nature..something that we being ignorant of may attain to the knowledge of by the use and due application of our natural Faculties. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 698 Happy the Man, who, studying Natures Laws, Thro' known Effects can trace the secret Cause. 1755Johnson, Law, an established and constant mode or process; a fixed correspondence of cause and effect. 1764Reid Inquiry vi. §13 The laws of nature are nothing else but the most general facts relating to the operations of nature. 1794J. Hutton Philos. Light, etc. 16 We..name those rules of action the laws of nature. 1827Whately Logic (1837) 361 The conformity of individual cases to the general rule is that which constitutes a Law of Nature. 1865Reader 29 Apr. 484/3 A Law expresses an invariable order of phenomena or facts. 1875Maine Hist. Instit. (ed. 4) 373 Law..has been applied derivatively to the orderly sequences of Nature. 1883H. Drummond Nat. Law in Spir. W. (ed. 2) 5 The Laws of Nature are simply statements of the orderly condition of things in Nature. 1898G. Meredith Odes Fr. Hist. 62 Those firm laws Which we name Gods.
b. With reference to a particular science or field of inquiry.
law of large numbers: see large a. 8 i. laws of motion: chiefly used spec. for the three following propositions formulated by Newton: (1) A body must continue in its state of rest or of uniform motion in a straight line, unless acted on by some external force; (2) Change of motion takes place in the direction of the impressed force, and is proportional to it; (3) Action and reaction are equal, and in contrary directions.
1668Phil. Trans. III. 864 A Summary Account given by Dr. John Wallis, Of the General Laws of Motion,..communicated to the R. Society, Novemb. 26. 1668. 1669Ibid. IV. 925 A Summary Account Of the Laws of Motion, communicated by Mr. Christian Hugens in a Letter to the R. Society. 1726tr. Gregory's Astron. I. 112 The Law of Attraction being the same as before. 1727–52Chambers Cycl. s.v. Motion, The general laws of motion were first brought into a system..by Dr. Wallis, Sir Christopher Wren, and M. Huygens. 1765Blackstone Comm. I. Introd. §2. 38 The laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. i. I. 48 Whoever passes in Germany from a Roman Catholic to a Protestant principality..finds that he has passed from a lower to a higher grade of civilization. On the other side of the Atlantic the same law prevails. 1854Brewster More Worlds xv. 221 The law of universal gravitation is established for several of these systems. 1857S. P. Hall in Merc. Marine Mag. (1858) V. 11 It does seem strange that..greater attention is not given to the Law of Storms. 1860Tyndall Glac. ii. xi. 289 As regards the motion of the surface of a glacier, two laws are to be borne in mind. 1864Bowen Logic ix. 308 The fact that water stands at this level is ranked among many other facts, which are comprehended under the general statement called a Law of Hydrostatics. 1877E. R. Conder Bas. Faith iii. 122 The laws of reasoning. 1884tr. Lotze's Metaph. 333 Stated in its complete logical form a law is always a universal hypothetical judgment, which states that whenever C is or holds good, E is or holds good.
c. In certain sciences, particular ‘laws’ are known by the names of their discoverers, as in the following examples. (Most of these terms are of general European currency, their equivalents being used in Fr., Ger., It., etc.)
(a) Astronomy.
Bode's law, an empirical formula representing the distances of the orbits of the other planets from the orbit of Mercury as forming an approximate geometrical progression. Kepler's laws, the three propositions established by John Kepler (1571–1630) with regard to the planetary motions: (1) That the planets move in ellipses, the sun being in one of the foci; (2) That the radius vector of a planet describes equal areas in equal times; (3) That the square of the periodic time of a planet is directly proportional to the cube of its mean distance from the sun.
1781Chambers' Cycl., Kepler's Law, is that law of the planetary motions discovered by Kepler. 1805Edin. Rev. Jan. 443 Kepler's Laws. 1833Herschel Astron. Index, Bode's law of planetary distances. 1837Whewell Induct. Sci. I. 416 One of the important rules known to us as ‘Kepler's laws’.
(b) Physics.
Avogadro's law, the law that equal volumes of different gases, pressure and temperature being equal, contain the same number of molecules. Boyle's law, the principle, published by Robert Boyle about 1662, that the volume of a given mass of gas (the temperature being constant) varies inversely as the pressure. Charles's law, the law discovered by Alex. César Charles (1746–1823) that for every degree centigrade of rise in temperature, the volume of a gas increases by ·00366 of its amount at zero. Dulong and Petit's law, the law that all the chemical elements have approximately the same atomic heat.
1860Maxwell Sci. Papers (1890) I. 389 Boyle and Mariotte's law. 1863Atkinson Ganot's Physics 110 The laws of the compressibility of gases were studied separately by Boyle and by Mariotti... Each of these philosophers arrived at the same law, which in England bears the name of Boyle's, and on the continent of Mariotti's. Ibid. 288 Dulong and Petit's law may be thus expressed; the same quantity of heat is needed to heat an atom of all simple bodies to the same extent. 1880E. Cleminshaw tr. Wurtz' Atomic Theory v. 95 The ‘law’, as it is generally called, of Avogadro and Ampère may be enunciated as follows: Equal volumes of gases or vapours contain the same number of molecules. 1884Daniell Princ. Physics 223 Then the volume varies as the ‘absolute temperature’ (Charles's Law, often attributed to Gay Lussac).
(c) Philology.
Grimm's law, the rule formulated by Jacob Grimm (in the 2nd ed. of his Deutsche Grammatik, 1822) with regard to the representation in the Germanic langs. of certain consonants of the primitive Aryan language. Grimm's statement was that original aspirates became mediæ in Gothic, Low German, English, Old Norse, etc. and tenues in High German; original mediæ became tenues in Gothic, etc., and ‘aspirates’ (supposed to be represented by spirants and affricates) in High German; and original tenues became ‘aspirates’ in Gothic, etc. and mediæ in High German. The formula is no longer accepted as correct, but the name of ‘Grimm's law’ is still applied to its rectified form, which is too complicated to be stated here. Verner's law, discovered by Karl Verner of Copenhagen in 1875, deals with a class of exceptions to Grimm's law, and is to the effect that an original Germanic voiceless spirant, when following or terminating a primitively unaccented syllable, became a voiced spirant, which in the historic Germanic langs. is under certain conditions represented by a media; the z which according to the ‘law’ results from s is, except in Gothic, normally represented by r. Grassmann's law, published by Hermann Grassmann in 1863, is that when primitive Aryan had two aspirates in the same or successive syllables the former of them was in Sanskrit changed into the corresponding media, and in Greek into the corresponding tenuis.
1838W. B. Winning Man. Compar. Philol. i. iii. 36 Grimm's Law.—I now proceed with the consideration of Grimm's important law..concerning the regular inter⁓change of certain letters in different languages. Ibid. 47 On the principle of Grimm's law, we exclude the Perso-Grecians, High Germans, and Goths, from among the earliest colonists of Italy. 1841Latham Eng. Lang. 190 An important fact relating to the change of consonants, which is currently called Grimm's Law. 1878Sweet in Academy 9 Feb. 123/2 Verner's law [explained].
(d) Pol. Econ.
Gresham's law, the principle, involved in Sir Thomas Gresham's letter to Q. Elizabeth in 1558, that ‘bad money drives out good’, i.e. that when debased money (sc. coins reduced in weight or fineness, or both) is current in the same country with coins of full legal weight and fineness, the latter will tend to be exported, leaving the inferior money as the only circulating medium.
1858Macleod Elem. Pol. Econ. 477 As he was the first to perceive that a bad and debased currency is the cause of the disappearance of the good money, we are only doing what is just, in calling this great fundamental law of the currency by his name. We may call it Gresham's law of the currency.
(e) Meteorol.
Buys-Ballot's law |biːzˈbæləʊ| [enunciated by C. H. D. Buys-Ballot (1817–90), Dutch meteorologist, in 1857] (see quots.).
1875Encycl. Brit. III. 29/1 Buys-Ballot's ‘Law of the Winds’..may be thus expressed:—The wind neither blows round the space of lowest pressure in circles returning on themselves, nor does it blow directly towards that space; but it takes a direction intermediate, approaching, however, more nearly to the direction and course of circular curves than of radii to a centre. 1970J. Hulbert All about Weather vi. 73 Buys Ballot's law..says that if a man stands with his back to the wind, the lower pressure will be to his left in the northern hemisphere, and to his right in the southern.
18. In generalized sense: Laws (of Nature) in general; the order and regularity in Nature of which laws are the expression.
a1853Robertson Serm. Ser. iv. iii. (1876) 26 Such an event is invariably followed by such a consequence. This we call law. 1865Mozley Mirac. ii. 39 In the argument against miracles the first objection is that they are against law. 1866Duke of Argyll Reign Law ii. (1867) 64 We have Law as applied simply to an observed Order of facts. 1873H. Spencer Stud. Sociol. ii. 42 The accepted conception of law is that of an established order to which the manifestations of a power or force conform. 1883H. Drummond Nat. Law in Spir. W. i. i. (1884) 5 The fundamental conception of Law is an ascertained working sequence..among the Phenomena of Nature.
19. Math. The rule or principle on which a series, or the construction of a curve, etc., depends.
1805–17R. Jameson Char. Min. (ed. 3) 163 The law which produces an octahedron from a cube.
IV.
20. a. Sport. An allowance in time or distance made to an animal that is to be hunted, or to one of the competitors in a race, in order to ensure equal conditions; a start; in phrases to get, give, have (fair) law (of).
1600R. Whyte in Nichols Progr. Q. Eliz. III. 91 Hir Grace..sawe sixteen buckes (all having fayre lawe) pulled downe with greyhoundes, in a laund. 1607Markham Caval. iii. (1617) 82 That the formost getting his law of the hind⁓most, do win the wager. 1611― Country Content. i. vii. (1668) 43 That the Fewterer shall give the Hare twelve score Law, ere he loose the Greyhounds. 1666–7Denham Direct. Paint. i. v. 7 So Huntsmen fair unto the Hares give Law. 1704Collect. Voy. (Churchill) III. 40/1 If the Bird has Law of him, he will hardly overtake him. 1706E. Ward Hud. Rediv. (1707) I. i. 22 The silly Hare..Having good Law, sat down to rest her. 1787G. White Selborne vi. (1789) 18 When the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they gave him, by their watches, law,..for twenty minutes. 1811Sporting Mag. XXXIX. 142 Give her law and she'll hold it a mile. 1829J. R. Best Pers. & Lit. Mem. 77 The accident was owing to his giving his horse too much law. 1861G. J. Whyte-Melville Mkt. Harb. x. (ed. 12) 82 The fox..having obtained..a little law of his pursuers, takes advantage of the lull to slip away. 1883E. Pennell-Elmhirst Cream Leicestersh. 312 The pack were now together,..the fox had gained but little law.
b. Hence, Indulgence, mercy.
1649Fuller Just Man's Funeral 17 God will give them fair law. 1719De Foe Crusoe ii. xi. (1840) 236 Merchant⁓ships show but little law to pirates, if they get them in their power. 1848J. H. Newman Loss & Gain 289 We shall have you back again among us by next Christmas..I can't give you greater law. 1849E. E. Napier Excurs. S. Africa II. 101 The ‘on dit’ is that he has ten days more law. 1879Geo. Eliot Coll. Breakf. P. 594, I will never grant One inch of law to feeble blasphemies.
V. attrib. and Comb.
21. Simple attributive.
a. Pertaining to the law as a body of rules to be obeyed, as in law-system; pertaining to law as a department of study, as in law authority, law department, law dictionary, law-faculty, law firm, law language, law-learning, law-library, law-lore, law-pedant, law-point, law-school, law-student, law studies, law-tractate, law-vocable, law-word; pertaining to the legal profession, as law-craft, law-gentleman, law-list, law-person, † law-solicitor; pertaining to forensic procedure and litigation, as in † law-bar, law-case, law-charges, law-chicanery, law costs, law-court, law-fight, law-quirk, law-reports, law-sale, law-suitor, law-writings; pertaining to the Mosaic dispensation or to the law in opposition to the gospel, as in law-covenant, law-curse, law-work, law-worker.
1818Cobbett Pol. Reg. XXXIII. 381 His book is the greatest of all *Law-Authorities.
1602Warner Alb. Eng. xii. lxxiii. 302 At Westminsters *Law-Barres.
1710Tatler No. 190 ⁋3 No one would offer to put a *Law-Case to me. 1776Foote Bankrupt iii. Wks. 1799 II. 126 The Attorney General to the paper, that answers the law cases, is not come yet.
1669Marvell Corr. cxii. Wks. 1872–5 II. 271 Your *law-charges here amount not to 5li. 1819Hermit in London II. 135 Long acquainted with law-persons and law-charges.
1795Burke Tracts Popery Laws iv. Wks. IX. 394 Vexatious litigation and crooked *law-chicanery.
1618Bolton Florus iv. xii. (1636) 325 Hee durst set up a *Law-court, and sit in judgement within his Campe. 1768–74Tucker Lt. Nat. (1834) II. 258 Justification..is a term taken from the law-courts. 1878N. Amer. Rev. CXXVII. 57 Condemned by the law-courts.
1803A. Swanston Serm. & Lect. II. 168 The term of the *law-covenant might be somewhat relaxed.
1587Golding De Mornay xx. (1617) 345 *Lawecraft hath almost as many sundry lawes as cases. 1832Southey in Q. Rev. XLVII. 504 The sober follies which disgrace our law-craft.
1786A. Gib Sacred Contempl. ii. i. iii. 177 Through a full effect of the *law-curse to which they are naturally subjected.
1849E. Chamberlain Indiana Gazetteer (ed. 3) 45 In the winter of 1838, the institution was chartered as an University, and in 1842, a *law department was established.
1594Carew Huarte's Exam. Wits xi. (1596) 154 In the *law-faculty euery law containeth a seueral particular case.
1880Mrs. Oliphant He that will not, etc. xxxi, He could not fight for his inheritance..unless indeed it were a *law-fight in the courts.
c1876‘Mark Twain’ Lett. to Publishers (1967) 95, I suppose our *law firm are [sic] above average. 1945G. L. Williams Learning the Law xii. 130 There are law firms in the East, located in the great seaports, where young solicitors may often find good places. 1965Mrs. L. B. Johnson White House Diary 21 July (1970) 304 His greatest hope was to stabilize the law firm. 1973N.Y. Law Jrnl. 31 Aug. 1/3 A New York attorney and a law firm have been found by Federal Judge Lloyd F. MacMahon of the Southern District of New York to have violated..the Code of Professional Responsibility.
1837Dickens Pickw. xlvi, If you *law-gentlemen do these things on speculation, why you must get a loss now and then you know.
1797Encycl. Brit. IX. 725/1 (heading) *Law-Language.
1808Bentham Sc. Reform 43 *Law-learning, with falshood for the basis of it.
1799H. K. White Let. to bro. Neville Rem. (1825) 179 With..a very large *law library to refer to.
1852Dickens Bleak Ho. x, Almanacs, diaries, and *law-lists.
1812Jefferson Writ. (1830) IV. 179 The..chaos of *law-lore from which we wished to be emancipated.
1751H. Walpole Lett. (1846) II. 382 You would easily believe this story, if you knew what a mere *law-pedant it is! 1819*law-persons [see law-charges above].
1819Scott in Biog. Notices ii. (1880) 385 If a *lawpoint were submitted to him.
1667Decay Chr. Piety vii. ⁋10 Solicitous..to..leave nothing to the mercy of a *law-quirk.
c1840Lady Wilton Art of Needlework xviii. 298 No. 50 [of The English Mercurie], dated July 23, 1588, is the first now in existence... In it are no advertisements—no fashions—no *law reports—no court circular. 1902Encycl. Brit. XXXI. 181/2 The Law Reports (begun in 1884) are conducted by the large staff of Times law reporters, all of them barristers of at least five years' standing. 1972Mod. Law Rev. XXXV. i. 22 The law reports, commonly regarded as our primary literature, tell us regularly and systematically how large claims are being determined.
1888W. D. Lighthall Yng. Seigneur 70 Before the parish church, just after mass on Sunday forenoon, the bailiff cries his *law-sales.
1818North Amer. Rev. Mar. 428 A *Law School is established at the University. 1863S. Warren Pop. & Pract. Introd. Law Stud. (ed. 3) I. i. 89 In Ireland, there is a ‘Law School’ in the University of Dublin. 1893W. K. Post Harvard Stories 128 ‘You couldn't do that if you were a biographee,’ reasoned Dane Austin, the law-school man. 1966G. Wilson in K. Boehm University Choice 242 It would be a rare law student who could do anything as straightforward as transfer his own house as a result of what he had learnt at law school.
1738Warburton Div. Legat. I. 431 That known Story of two *Law Sollicitors.
1835S. Warren Pop. & Pract. Introd. Law Stud. iii. 102 Could the eye of the young *law-student be brought to..see how heavily his bodily and mental energies will be taxed..how he would husband them! 1884Harper's Mag. LXVIII. 817 The next call was upon S―, a young law-student. 1945G. L. Williams Learning the Law iv. 36 A teacher must consider..the amount of time actually available to a law student for his studies. 1966Law student [see law school above].
1845C. M. Kirkland Western Clearings 42 George Burnet had just come home after finishing what he called his ‘*law studies’.
a1720Sheffield (Dk. of Buckhm.) Wks. (1753) I. 160 We did not, as *law-suitors for contention, Disburse more charges than the prize was worth.
1880Gladstone in Daily News 17 June 2/4 Allowing for all the differences in the *law system of the two countries.
1649Milton Eikon. v. 45 To which and other *Law-tractats I referr the more Lawyerlie mooting of this point.
1845Carlyle Cromwell (1871) V. 60 Hundreds of *Law-vocables.
a1654Selden Table-T. (Arb.) 64 Allodium is a *Law-word contrairy to Feudum. 1645Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 198 God healeth the sinner from his guiltiness (it is a law-word).
Ibid. 149 It is likely Judas and Cain..had some *law-work in their heart, and yet were never converted. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. xii, Wi' ony rag of human righteousness, or formal law-work. 1860N. Macmichael Pilgrim Ps. 251 Law-work keeps him struggling..for years before he finds peace in believing.
1577T. Vautrollier Luther on Ep. Gal. 131, I haue the author and Lord of the Scripture wyth me, on whose side I will rather stand, then beleue all the rablement of *Law-workers.
1701Lond. Gaz. No. 3749/6 The original Titles to Estates, and other *Law-Writings.
b. Pertaining to or commonly used for legal treatises or documents, as law-binding, law-calf, law-sheep.
1727–51Chambers Cycl. s.v. Book-binding, French-binding, law-binding, marble-binding [etc.]. 1837Dickens Pickw. xxxiv, Goodly octavos, with a red label behind, and that underdone-pie-crust-coloured cover, which is technically known as ‘law-calf’. 1879Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 89/1 The uncoloured skin..is used in the peculiar style of binding called Law. 1895J. W. Zaehnsdorf Hist. Bookbind. 25 Law Calf.—Law books are usually bound in calf left wholly uncoloured.
c. with the sense ‘as defined by law, according to the legal view’, as in law-goodness, law-guilt, law-honesty, law-infant, law obligation, † law power, law reckoning, law righteousness; law-honest adj.
1850Robertson Serm. Ser. iii. v. 65 Goodness..which is produced by rewards and punishments—*law goodness, *law-righteousness.
1645Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 197 Not only shall justification free us..from all *law-guilt..but [etc.].
1838J. F. Cooper Homeward Bound III. xi. 333 Mr. Dodge belonged to a tolerably numerous class, that is quaintly described as being ‘*law honest’, that is to say, he neither committed murder nor petty larceny. 1873Spectator 22 Feb. 236/2 To find representatives who after a double winnowing are commonly ‘law honest’, will abstain from actual bribes or actual plundering of the State till.
1905Daily Chron. 6 Dec. 7/7 What may be called *law-honesty, the kind of honesty necessary in order to avoid falling into the clutches of the law.
1810Sporting Mag. XXXV. 62 The consent and approbation of the fair *law-infant.
1645Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 201 Christ's pardon in like manner doth remove a *law-obligation to eternal death.
1647Mercurius Brit., His Spectacles 4 A King..whilest he is absent from his Parliament as a man, he is legally and in his *Law-power present.
1800A. Swanston Serm. & Lect. I. 326 The sufferings which Christ endured are his by God's gracious imputation and in *law-reckoning.
22. a. Objective, as law-bearer, law-evader, law-framer, law-fulfiller, † law-monger, law-preacher, † law-racker; law-catching, law-making, law-preaching vbl. ns.; law-magnifying vbl. n. and ppl. a.; also law-contemning, law-cracking, law-loving, † law-monging, law-revering adjs.b. Instrumental, as law-beaten, law-bound, law-condemned, law-forced, law-governed, law-locked, law-made, law-ridden adjs.c. Locative, as law-learned adj.; hence law-learnedness.
1483Cath. Angl. 210/2 A *Law berer, legifer.
1645Milton Tetrach. Wks. 1851 IV. 190 Let the buyer beware, saith the old *Law-beaten terme.
a1613Overbury Charac., Franklin Wks. (1856) 149 To bee *law-bound among men, is like to be hide-bound among his beasts.
1625Fletcher & Shirley Nt. Walker iv. i, I'll..let my Lady go a-foot a *Law-catching.
1681J. Flavel Meth. Grace vi. 120, I am a *law-condemned, and a self-condemned sinner.
1805Scott Last Minstr. iv. xxiv, Your *law contemning kinsmen.
1606Wily Beguiled B 4 b, This *lawcracking cogfoyst.
1894H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot 2 Being both a law-breaker and a *law-evader.
1794Coleridge Relig. Musings I. 102 The morsel toss'd by *law-forced charity.
1876Fox Bourne Locke III. xiii. 392–3 Expert *law-framers.
1870Spurgeon Treas. Dav. Ps. xl. 8 The atoning sacrifice, the *law-fulfiller.
1938Burlington Mag. Mar. 148/1 The ‘*law-governed’ development of the language of form. 1960H. Edwards Spirit Healing iii. 25 Every change within our comprehension is the result of law-governed forces applied to the subject.
1606Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. ii. Trophies 1308 The *Law-learned Sage. 1658–9Burton's Diary (1828) IV. 121 A law-learned head and an eloquent tongue. 1895J. Menzies Cynewulf's Elene 38 The law-learned one, the ancient sage.
1826Bentham in Westm. Rev. Oct. 492 *Law-learnedness in this and the higher grade.
1886G. Allen Maimie's Sake xiv, We must behave ourselves like civilized people, clothed and *law-locked.
1698Sylvester Du Bartas ii. ii. iii. Colonies 424 Th' ingenious, Towr-full, and *Law-loving Soil, Which Jove did with his Leman's name en-stile.
1622Drayton Poly-olb. xxii. 113 His father the lord Wells, who he suppos'd might sway His so outrageous son with his lov'd *law-made brother, Sir Thomas Dymock.
1744E. Erskine Serm. Wks. 1871 III. 185 The *law-magnifying righteousness of Christ. 1786A. Gib Sacred Contempl. 337 The justice-satisfying and law-magnifying of His atonement.
1690Child Disc. Trade (ed. 4) 33 Every nation does proceed according to peculiar methods of their own in..*law-making.
1645Milton Colast. 18 Though this catering *Law-monger bee bold to call it wicked.
a1693Urquhart's Rabelais iii. xliv. 362 *Law-monging Attorneys.
1645Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 144 Your *law-preachers lead men from the foundation, Christ.
1875E. White Life in Christ iii. xxii. (1878) 322 Those ante⁓diluvians who had heard the *law-preaching of Enoch and of Noah.
1635R. Brathwait Arcad. Pr. 217 If I should be Judge,..*Law-rackers should be all made readers of the Anatomy Lecture in Pluto's court.
1862S. Lucas Secularia 200 Their act is memorably characteristic of our *law-revering race.
1835Marryat Olla Podr. iii, England is no longer priest-ridden..but..she is *law-ridden. 1874Helps Soc. Press. ii. 23 A very considerably law-ridden country.
23. Special comb.: law-act, (a) a transaction in law; (b) (see act n. 8); law-bible, applied by Irish Roman Catholics to the Authorized Version; law-bred a., bred or trained in legal studies; law-church (disparagingly), the Established Church; † law-daughter (see 3 c above); † law-driver, one who drives or works at the law; a lawyer; law enforcement, enforcement of the law; freq. attrib.; so law-enforcer; † law-father (see 3 c above); † law-free a., not legally convicted or condemned; law-French, the corrupt variety of Norman French used in English law-books; † law-house, a court of justice; law-keeper, † (a) a guardian of the law; = Gr. νοµοϕύλαξ; (b) an observer of the law; law-Latin, the barbarous Latin of early English statutes; law-lord, (a) one of the members of the House of Lords qualified to take part in its judicial business; (b) in Scotland colloq., one of those judges who have by courtesy the style of ‘Lord’; law-lordship, the office or dignity of a law-lord; law-neck-cloth, humorous for ‘a pillory’; law-office (U.S.), a lawyer's office; law-officer, a public functionary employed in the administration of the law, or to advise the government in legal matters; spec. in England, law-officer (of the Crown), either the Attorney or Solicitor General; hence law-officership; † law-place, (a) a post as law professor; (b) position in the eye of the law; law-post, ? a post marking the limit of ‘law’ (sense 20); † law-prudent a. [after juris prudentia], marked by legal learning; † law-puddering, pothering about the law; † law-setter, a lawgiver; law station slang, a police station; law-term, (a) a word or expression used in law; (b) one of the periods appointed for the sitting of the law-courts; law-writer, † (a) a legislator; (b) one who writes books on law; (c) one who copies or engrosses legal documents.
1645Rutherford Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845) 215 The renewed apprehension of the grace of God..maketh not a new forensical and *law-act. 1708J. Chamberlayne St. Gt. Brit. i. iii. xi. 470 After a Man has been five years Batchellor of Law, or seven years Master of Arts, he may be Doctor of Law, provided he keep two Law-Acts, and Oppose once.
1847W. Carleton Traits Irish Peasantry (1860) II. 5 The consoling reflection that he swore only on a *Law Bible.
1836Sir H. Taylor Statesman xxxii. 251 The fault of a *law-bred mind lies commonly in seeing too much of a question, not seeing its parts in their due proportions.
1826in Cobbett Rur. Rides (1885) II. 185 He wishes to support the *law-church, and the army. 1845G. Oliver Biog. Jesuits 42 A minister of the Law-church was called in for his opinion.
1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 60 And Hecuba old Princesse dyd I see, with number, an hundred *Law daughters.
1625Fletcher & Shirley Nt. Walker iv. i, She's the merriest thing among these *law-drivers, And in their studies half a day together.
1936L. Hellman Days to Come ii. iii. 70 Dowel was found knifed, dead... That gives us a little job of *law enforcement to do. 1955D. W. Maurer in Publ. Amer. Dialect Soc. xxiv. 6 A problem which urgently demands the attention of the legislators, law-enforcement specialists, and the judiciary. 1956‘E. McBain’ Cop Hater (1963) xvii. 129 If they can do away with law enforcement, the rest will be easy... First the police, then the National Guard. 1960Times 3 Oct. 13/6 Their functions as law-enforcement officers. 1972A. Roudybush Sybaritic Death (1974) xiii. 119 His proposal..to help the overwhelmed police in their law-enforcement task.
1938Tablet 1 Jan. 1/1 The world was pictured as consisting of the law-makers and *law-enforcers. 1975Listener 16 Jan. 67/1 The law enforcers themselves were bent.
1583Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 54 Next cooms thee lusty Choroebus Soon to king Priamus by law: thus he *lawfather helping.
a1670Spalding Troub. Chas. I (Bannatyne Club) I. 12 To quyte him who had married his sister, so long as he was *law free, he could not with his honour.
1644Milton Educ. Wks. (1847) 99/2 To smatter Latin with an English mouth, is as ill a hearing as *law French. 1876Digby Real Prop. v. 205 note, The reports in the Year Books are written in the strange jargon called law-French.
a1610Healey Theophrastus (1636) 91 Strouting it in the *Lawe house, saying; There is no dwelling in this Citie.
1644Milton Areop. (Arb.) 49 That no Poet should so much as read to any privat man, what he had writt'n, untill the Judges and *Law-keepers had seen it. 1894H. H. Gardener Unoff. Patriot 3 [A man may] be at once a law-breaker and a good man, or a law-keeper and a bad one.
a1613Overbury A Wife (1638) 192 He hates all but *Law-Latine. 1713Berkeley Guardian No. 62 ⁋4 An imitation of the polite style,..is abandoned for law-Latin. 1818Scott Hrt. Midl. v, I ken our law-latin offends Mr. Butler's ears.
1773Burke Corr. (1844) I. 444 The measure..will not be opposed in council by any great *law-lord in the kingdom. 1883Freeman in Longm. Mag. II. 482 There has been something like the revival of a kind of professional peerage in the persons of certain of the law-lords. 1901Dundee Advertiser 12 Apr., ‘Lord Newbottle’—there never was such a title in the Scottish Peerage, though it was a law-lord's title. 1958Times 24 July 8/7 The sons and daughters of law lords and life peers..shall be treated for their style, rank, dignity, and precedence in the same way as the wives..of hereditary barons. 1972Mod. Law Rev. XXXV. i. 63 Two Law Lords with first instance experience in the Divorce Division.
1882Daily News 3 June 2/2 An Irish Judge had been nominated to fill one of the *law-lordships of the House of Lords.
1789Wolcot (P. Pindar) Expost. Ode vi. Wks. 1812 II. 228 Perchance *Law Neck-cloths, form'd of deal or oak..Shall rudely hug his harmless throat.
1873‘Mark Twain’ & Warner Gilded Age xii. 117 In the anteroom of the *law-office where he was writing. 1896Chatauqua Mag. Dec. 322/1 The daily routine and drudgery of a law-office. 1973N.Y. Law Jrnl. 2 Aug. 16/6 (Advt.), Political Science undergraduate seeks 4 years law study and clerkship in law office to gain credit to take Bar.
1781Sir W. Jones Ess. Bailments 85 The great *law-officer of the Othman court. 1817Sp. Earl Liverpool in Parl. Debates 778 It might turn out, that the law officers in 1801 had acted upon their own opinion.
1896Daily News 1 July 7/2 An Under-Secretaryship for India..was a poor substitute for a *Law Officership.
1587in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.) 25 A *Lawe place now voyde by the departure of Mr Doctor Day. a1771J. Gill in Treas. Dav. Ps. cxix. 122 Put himself in their law-place and stead, and became responsible to law and justice for them.
1741Compl. Fam.-Piece ii. i. 309 The first, which is next the Dog-house and Pens, is the *Law-Post, and is distant from them 160 Yards.
1645Milton Tetrach. 55 Heerin declaring his annotation to be slight & nothing *law prudent.
― Colast. 16 The Servitor..declaring his capacity nothing refin'd since his *Law-puddering, but still the same it was in the Pantry, and at the Dresser.
1572L. Lloyd Pilgr. Pr. (1607) 65 Lycurgus that auncient *law-setter.
1958F. Norman Bang to Rights 50 After a while we came to a *law station. 1959Anon. Streetwalker x. 180, I was in the law station. They got me early.
1693Dryden Juvenal (1697) p. lxvi, Writings, which my Author Tacitus, from the *Law-Term, calls famosos libellos. 1758S. Hayward Serm. i. 11 The word Condemnation is a law-term.
1580Hollyband Treas. Fr. Tong, Legislateur,..a Law-maker, a *lawe-writer. 1852Dickens Bleak Ho. (1853) x. 94 Our law-writers, who live by job-work, are a queer lot.
Add:[III.] [17.] [b.] law of averages, strictly = law of large numbers s.v. large a. 8 i; popularly, the (false) belief that future events are likely to be such as to reduce any overall deviation from an average represented by past events (= Monte Carlo fallacy s.v. Monte Carlo n. 1 c).
[1857H. T. Buckle Hist. Civilization in Eng. I. i. 22 The great advance made by the statisticians consists in applying to these inquiries [into crime] the doctrine of averages, which no one thought of doing before the eighteenth century. ]1875F. Arnold Our Bishops & Deans I. vi. 323 Here is the briefest and most complete refutation of Mr. Buckle's ‘Law of Averages’ with which we are acquainted. 1915Illustr. World Oct. 222 All business of today takes cognizance of the law of averages. 1927Pop. Mechanics Mar. 405/1 To get a working understanding of the law of averages for your own purposes..you begin by keeping records. 1941W. J. Cash Mind of South ii. ii. 155 If, under the law of averages for human nature, the majority of even the better sort did inevitably compromise, then they compromised by iotas and jots. 1968R. Kyle Love Lab. (1969) viii. 109 Prescott knew, from the Kinsey material and the law of averages, that the Prosecutor himself was not without guilt. 1986Times 5 June 39 The law of averages dictated that there would eventually be a line of dialogue that did not sound as if it came from a B-movie. 1993M. Atwood Robber Bride li. 404 Tony is betting on the law of averages. Sooner or later..Zenia will appear.
[c.] (f) Logic. law of Clavius [see quot. 1951], the law of logic, sometimes used as an axiom, that if a proposition is implied by its negation then that proposition is true.
1951J. ᴌukasiewicz Aristotle's Syllogistic iv. 80 The second axiom, which reads in words ‘If (if not-p, then p), then p’, was applied by Euclid to the proof of a mathematical theorem. I call it the law of Clavius, as Clavius (a learned Jesuit living in the second half of the sixteenth century, one of the constructors of the Gregorian calendar) first drew attention to this law in his commentary on Euclid. 1965B. Mates Elem. Logic vi. 99, (-P→P)→P (Law of Clavius).
d. Hence in numerous jocular names for observations or guiding principles which humorously or ironically encapsulate some aspect of human experience; usu. preceded by the name of its supposed originator. Murphy's law: see Murphy n.2 3. Parkinson's law: see Parkinson n.2 Sod's law: see sod n.3 2 e.
1961Amer. Speech XXXVI. 149 Gumperson's Law, the humorous theory that whatever can go wrong probably will. 1963H. A. Smith Short Hist. Fingers i. 7 Fetridge's Law,..states that important things that are supposed to happen do not happen, especially when people are looking. 1968N.Y. Times Mag. 17 Mar. 116/3 The first law for officeholders is majestically short, simple and unassailable: ‘Get re-elected’. 1969N.Y. Times 20 Aug. 46/6 What Yugoslav wits call ‘Meyers' law’..stipulates that: ‘If the facts don't fit the theory, discard the facts’. 1973H. McCloy Change of Heart ix. 105, I call this Julian's Law: a great man's intimates are never as great as he is. 1983Truck & Bus Transportation June 30/2 Law No 3.0 (Lowry): If it jams—force it. 1995Guardian 26 Jan. (OnLine section) 7/1 Software development, by contrast, is governed by the rule known as Hofstadter's law: ‘It always takes longer than you expect, even when you take into account Hofstadter's law.’
[V.] [23.] law centre, in the U.K., a publicly-funded institution offering free legal advice and assistance.
1970Solicitors' Jrnl. 24 July 557/1 It will not be possible to assess the significance of the opening of this country's first neighbourhood *law centre..for some time to come. 1985R. C. A. White Admin. of Justice iv. xv. 255 The law centre is located in shop-front premises... It is funded primarily by grants. 1991Parl. Affairs XLIV. 543, I would also tip out the commercial lawyers of the City and Temple to work in High Street general practices and Law Centres, many of which are opting out of Legal Aid right now.
Law Commission, in England and Wales, and in Scotland, a body of legal advisers responsible for reviewing the law and proposing reforms; since 1965, permanently established under the Law Commissions Act 1965.
[1833Hansard Lords 30 Apr. 756 Law Commissions. The Lord Chancellor moved for a copy of the fourth Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the state of the Common Law.] 1833Ibid. 28 June 1285 (heading) *Law Commission (Scotland). 1965Mod. Law Rev. XXVIII. 675 The [Law Commissions] Act provides for the appointment of a body of Commissioners, to be known as the Law Commission, consisting of a Chairman and four other Commissioners appointed by the Lord Chancellor. 1995Independent 6 Mar. 3/1 The BMA is opposed to legalising living wills, although the Law Commission wants the position tidied up.
hence Law Commissioner.
1835Hansard Lords 4 Sept. 1329 *Law Commissioners. Lord Brougham..alluded to the Commissioners of Law Inquiry..appointed..in..1833..who had furnished two most valuable reports. 1963Gardiner & Martin Law Reform Now i. 8 The setting up within the Lord Chancellor's Office of a strong unit concerned exclusively with law reform... The head of the proposed unit..should preside over a committee of..lawyers..; in the following we will call them *Law Commissioners. 1987Financial Times 19 May 6/7 A former law commissioner..is to be the first building society ombudsman.
law society, a society for lawyers or law students; spec. (with capital initials) each of the national bodies established in England and Wales, and in Scotland to further the interests of solicitors and to regulate their professional conduct.
1821(title) *Law Society. Rules and regulations of the Society of Practitioners, in the several courts of Law and Equity, resident in and near the Metropolis, established in the year 1739. 1838H. Martineau Retrospect Western Trav. II. 26 The students of this school have instituted a Law Society, at whose meetings the Professor presides, and where the business of every branch of the profession is rehearsed. 1974M. Gilbert Flash Point i. 7, I joined the Law Society, as an assistant solicitor. 1993Independent on Sunday 8 Aug. (Business section) 22/6 If overcharged by a solicitor, the Law Society makes an effort to lend a hand, although it is somewhat limp-wristed.
▸ law of independent assortment n. Genetics the principle stating that homologous genes or chromosomes (provided they are not linked) are distributed randomly to the gametes during meiosis; also called Mendel's second law; cf. independent assortment n. at independent adj. and n. Additions.
1924T. H. Morgan in E. H. Cowdry Gen. Cytol. xi. 693 The *law of independent assortment of the pairs of factors. 1999L. Brzustowicz in M. L. Rice Towards Genetics of Lang. i. 11 When we observe this type of violation of the law of independent assortment, we say that the genes under consideration are linked.
▸ law of segregation n. Genetics the principle stating that alleles of a particular gene separate from each other at meiosis and are distributed to different gametes; also called Mendel's first law; cf. segregation n. 1e.
1902W. F. R. Weldon in Biometrika 1 229 If the hybrids of the first generations [of two races of peas]..be allowed to fertilise themselves, all possible combinations of the ancestral race-characters will appear in the second generation with equal frequency... Characters intermediate between those of the ancestral races will not occur... This may be called the *Law of Segregation. 2000Philos. of Sci. 67 253 The conservation of mass/energy law is more stable than Mendel's law of segregation.
▪ II. † law, n.2 Obs.
Also 5 lagh, 6 Sc. lacht, lauch. Cf. lawing n. Sc.
[ad. ON. lag market-price.]
Score, share of expense, legal charge.
c1410Hoccleve Crt. Good Company 33 Paie your lagh. 15..Peebles to Play xi, Ane bad pay, ane ither said, nay, Byd quhill we rakin our lauch. 1530Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844) I. 137 The said day, Iohne Anderson was convicted in ane lacht of vj scillingis..because he [etc.].
▪ III. law, n.3 Sc. and north.|lɔː|
Also 3–5 lau(e, 4, 7 lawe.
[Northern repr. OE. hláw low n.]
1. A hill, esp. one more or less round or conical. Sometimes with local designation prefixed, as North Berwick Law, Cushat Law.
a1300Cursor M. 4081 Wit þair fee bituix þair lauus. Ibid. 7393 ‘He es’, he said, ‘þar he es won, Wit our scep apon þe lau.’ 13..E.E. Allit. P. B. 992 Noȝt saued watz bot Segor þat sat on a lawe. c1470Henryson Mor. Fab. v. (Parl. Beasts) vii, Ane vnicorne come lansand ouer ane law. 1628Coke On Litt. 5 b, Law signifieth a hill. 1807J. Headrick Arran 154 Artificial hills, called laws, in various parts of the country. 1813Hogg Queen's Wake 69 We raide the tod doune on the hill, The martin on the law. 1825J. Wilson Noct. Ambr. Wks. I. 96 Ilk forest shaw and lofty law Frae grief and gloom arouse ye. 1892Stevenson Across the Plains 209 You might climb the Law..and be⁓hold the face of many counties.
attrib.c1420Anturs of Arth. iii, He ladde þat lady so longe by þe lawe sides.
†2. A monumental tumulus of stones. Obs.
1607Camden Britannia 660 In quibus quod mireris, plures sunt lapidum strues admodum magnæ Lawes vocant, quas in memoriam occisorum olim aggestas credunt vicini.
▪ IV. law, v.|lɔː|
[OE. laᵹian, f. laᵹu law n.1]
†1. trans. To ordain (laws); to establish as a law; to render lawful. Obs.
a1023Wulfstan Hom. li. (Napier) 274/7 Laᵹjaþ gode woroldlaᵹan and lecᵹað þærtoeacan, þæt ure cristendom fæste stande. a1225Leg. Kath. 1206 As his ahne goddlec lahede hit ant lokede. 1651N. Bacon Disc. Govt. Eng. ii. xxvii. (1739) 124 The King hath a power of Lawing and Unlawing in Christ's Kingdom.
b. To command or impose as law. rare—1.
1855Bailey Mystic 82 The vast Baobab..Within whose cavernous..trunk Meet village senates, lawing peace and war To dusky tribes.
†c. to law it: to act the lawgiver. Obs.
1653H. Cogan Scarlet Gown Ep. Ded., That pragmatique Superintendent Court, and Consistory, which Lords and Lawes it, or would willingly doe so, over the whole world.
d. Sc. (? nonce-use.) To give the law to, control.
1785Burns Women's Minds iv, But for how lang the flie may stang, Let inclination law that.
2. intr. To go to law, litigate. Also to law it. Also colloq. or dial. in indirect passive.
a1550Hye Way to Spyttel Ho. 799 in Hazl. E.P.P. IV. 59 They that lawe for a debt vntrew. 1581Mulcaster Positions xxxvi. (1887) 138 He will needes lawe it, which careth for no lawe. 1624Fletcher Rule a Wife iv. iii, Ye must law and claw before ye get it. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull ii. iii, If we law it on, till Lewis turns honest, I am afraid our credit will run low at Blackwell Hall! a1734North Lives I. 108 There [sc. Ho. of Lords] the knight lawed by himself, for no person opposed him. 1866Geo. Eliot F. Holt (1868) 7 People who inherited estates that were lawed about.
quasi-trans.1742Fielding J. Andrews ii. v, Two of my neighbours have been at law about a house, till they have both lawed themselves into a gaol.
b. trans. To go to law with, proceed against in the courts.
1647Trapp Comm. 1 Cor. vi. 7 By your litigious lawing one another, you betray a great deal of weaknesse. 1786Nelson in Nicolas Disp. (1845) I. 169 One sends me a challenge; another Laws me: but I keep them all off. 1860Reade Cloister & H. (1861) IV. 398 Alas, poor soul! And for what shall I law him? 1870E. Peacock Ralf Skirl. II. 117 You can't law a man ye knaw for a job like that.
3. To mutilate (an animal) so as to render it incapable of doing mischief. Almost exclusively spec. to expeditate (a dog). Obs. exc. Hist.
1534G. Ferrers tr. Carta de Foresta in Gt. Charter etc. §6 (1542) B ij b, He whose dog is not lawed [orig. expeditatus] & so founde shalbe amercyed [etc.]. 1610W. Folkingham Art of Survey iii. iv. 71 Foote-geld implies a Priuiledge to keepe Dogges within the Forrest not expeditated or lawed sans controule. 1616Rich Cabinet 54 b, His own [cattle] are so ringed, and yoakt, and lawde, that they neuer trespasse on any other man. 1866Chamb. Jrnl. xxviii. 261 They were forbidden to take anything for lawing dogs. 1886Contemp. Rev. XX. 505 The cur which the husbandman kept might only exist if he had been ‘lawed’, or so mutilated, that the idea of poaching was for ever banished from his mind.
▪ V. law, int. Now vulgar.|lɔː|
Also 9 laws.
[Cf. la, lo, of which it may have been in origin an alteration prompted by an instinctive sense of expressiveness in the vowel sound; in later use it has coalesced with lor' = ‘Lord!’ as an exclamation; cf.Lawd.]
An exclamation now expressing chiefly astonishment or admiration, or (often) surprise at being asked a question; in early use chiefly asseverative.
With † law ye cf. la you s.v. la.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. v. ii. 414 To begin Wench, so God helpe me law, My love to thee is sound sans cracke or flaw. 1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. iii. Wks. 1856 I. 125 Lawe I, I begin to swell—puffe. 1620Shelton Quix. ii. xxv. 169 Law ye there (quoth Sancho) did not I tell you [etc.]. 1762Ann. Reg. 134 ‘O law, madam’, said the poor children. 1813Sketches Charac. (ed. 2) I. 59 Law! I wonder at that, replied Mrs. Mansell. 1846C. M. S. Kirkland Bee-Tree in Amer. Short Stories (1904) 204 Law sakes alive! 1851Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's Cabin (1852) II. xx. 49 Law, Missis, you must whip me; my old Missis allers whipped me. 1853‘C. Bede’ Verdant Green i. vi, ‘Law bless me, sir’. 1863–5J. Thomson Sunday at Hampstead ix, But law! Think of becoming a poor naked squaw! 1878Mrs. Stowe Poganuc P. iii. 26 Laws, he's an old bachelor. 1880‘Mark Twain’ Lett. (1917) I. 383 A kind-hearted, well-meaning corpse was the Boston young man, but lawsy bless me, horribly dull company. 1881J. C. Harris Nights with Uncle Remus (1884) xii. 65 ‘Is dey anybody home?’.. ‘Law, no, honey, folks all gone.’ 1884‘Mark Twain’ Huck. Finn xvi. 142 But lawsy, how you did fool 'em, Huck. 1887R. M. Johnston in Harper's Mag. Apr. 729/1 Ah, law me! But it's no business of mine. Ibid. 729/2 Good gracious, laws o' mercy, sister! 1914G. Atherton Perch of Devil i. 75 ‘Your room's pretty!’..‘mine's pink—but lawsy!’ 1945[see Lawd].
▪ VI. law
obs. form of lave, lay n.1, low. |