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.

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1867.  Freeman, Norm. Conq., I. vi. 558. The great Earl … who on every other occasion appears as conciliatory and law-abiding.

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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.

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  Hence Law-abidingness.

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1847.  W. E. Barber, Addr. Lafayette Coll., 14 Sept., 27. One of the best meters of a community’s civilization is its spirit and habit of law-abidingness.

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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.

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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.

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1889.  Spectator, 28 Sept., 391/1. That most useful of civic virtues, law-abidingness.

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