a. [f. LAW sb.1 + pr. pple. of ABIDE v. The formation may have been due to a reminiscence of the next word.] Abiding by, i.e., maintaining or submitting to the law.
1867. Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. vi. 558. The great Earl who on every other occasion appears as conciliatory and law-abiding.
1878. Bosw. Smith, Carthage, 63. If the Roman people had not been the most law-abiding people in the world all public business must have come to a standstill.
Hence Law-abidingness.
1847. W. E. Barber, Addr. Lafayette Coll., 14 Sept., 27. One of the best meters of a communitys civilization is its spirit and habit of law-abidingness.
1872. Pall Mall Gaz., 2 March, 12/1. They or their forefathers laid the foundations of the noble English tongue, English law and law-abidingness, and English freedom.
1880. Fortn. Rev., Feb., 311. National self-respect demands a decent conformity to law-abidingness and morality, in matters where even the men most greedy of alarms cannot find a pretext for fear.
1889. Spectator, 28 Sept., 391/1. That most useful of civic virtues, law-abidingness.