Forms: 1 laʓu (oblique cases laʓe, nom. and acc. pl. laʓa, once laʓan; in comb. lah-), 2 laȝwe, laȝa, 25 laȝe, 3 Layamon læȝe, læwe, 3 laha, 35 lagh(e, 37 lau(e, lawe, Sc. lauwe, 4 lach(t, laght, (lake), lauh, 4, 6 Sc. la, lawch, 5 Sc. laucht, laue, laugh, 59 Sc. lauch, 5 law. [Late OE. (c. 1000) laʓu str. fem. (pl. laʓa), a. prehistoric ON. *lagu (:OIcel. lǫg), pl. of lag neut.; in sing. the word meant in Icel. 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. 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).]
a. 1000. Laws of Ethelred, VI. c. 37 (Schmid). ʓif he hine laðian wille do ðæt be ðam deopestan aðe on Engla laʓe, and on Dena laʓe, be ðam ðe heora laʓu si.
11[?]. O. E. Chron., an. 1064 (Laud MS.). He niwade ðær Cnutes laʓe.
c. 1205. Lay., 6305. Þa makede heo ane læȝe, and læide ȝeon þat leode.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 19270. Þe wick þai hald þe lau for drede.
c. 1425. Wyntoun, Cron., IV. vii. 672. [He] governyd wytht his lauch the land.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 247. All offices had by dower to be confiscat and spent to the use and custome of the law.
1596. Shaks., Merch. V., IV. i. 178. The Venetian Law Cannot impugne you as you do proceed.
1662. Bk. Comm. Prayer, Pref. Injoyned by the Lawe of the Land.
1726. Swift, Gulliver, IV. v. But he was at a loss how it should come to pass, that the law, which was intended for every mans preservation, should be any mans ruin.
1764. Goldsm., Trav., 386. Laws grind the poor, and rich men rule the law.
1785. Paley, Mor. Philos., Wks. 1825, IV. 184. The law of England constrains no man to become his own accuser.
1833. Ht. Martineau, Manch. Strike, i. 10. Had we not our combinations, when combination was against the law?
1896. Law 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.
1513. More, in Grafton, Chron. (1568), II. 774. Then the lawe maketh me his garden.
1611. Shaks., Wint. T., IV. iv. 715. This being done, let the Law goe whistle.
1628. Sir J. Eliot, Speech Parl., in Forster, Life, II. 124. The law designs to every man his own.
1728. Young, Love Fame, I. (1757), 80. When the Law shews her teeth, but dares not bite.
1794. Burke, Corr. (1844), IV. 228. The law is wiser than cabal or interest.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, li. If the law supposes that, said Mr. Bumble, the law is a assa idiot.
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.
1382. Wyclif, Dan. vi. 15. The lawe of Medis and Persis.
1564. trans. P. Martyrs 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.
1816. Scott, 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.
1884. Rider 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.
147085. Malory, Arthur, VIII. ii. 275. Wel said the King Melyodas, and therfor shal ye haue the lawe. And soo she was dampned to be brent.
1593. Shaks., 2 Hen. VI., I. iii. 214. This is the Law, and this Duke Humfreyes doome.
e. To wage ones law, Wager of law: see WAGE v., WAGER sb.
2. One of the individual rules that 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.
a. 1023. Wulfstan, Hom. (1883), 275. Ræde ʓe nu forð laʓan gode fyrðor.
11[?]. O. E. Chron., an. 1086 (Laud MS.). He læʓde laʓa ðæt swa hwa swa sloʓe heort oððe hinde ðæt hine man sceolde blendian.
c. 1205. Lay., 2078. And he heom onleide þat weoren lawen gode.
1297. R. Glouc. (Rolls), 9642. William bastard luþer lawes made ynou.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 12115. Of your laues i am vttan For erthli fader haf i nan.
c. 1320. Sir Tristr., 904. Tvo ȝere he sett þat land His lawes made he cri.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 63. To swilk lauis & to swilk maneris schuld ilk iuge obey.
c. 1460. Fortescue, Abs. & Lim. Mon., ii. (1885), 112. Therfore it is that þe lawes seyn, quod principi placuit legis habet vigorem.
150020. Dunbar, Poems, xiv. 28. That all the lawis ar not sett by ane bene.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. IV., 7 b. He said that the lawes of the realme were in his head.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidanes Comm., 382 b. Such thinges as were decreed in the counsel in fourmer yeares, ought not to have the force of a law.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., III. ii. 334. His faults lye open to the Lawes.
1637. Decree Star Chamb., § 3, in Miltons 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.
c. 1670. Hobbes, Dial. Com. Laws (1677), 32. A Law is the Command of him, or them that have the Soveraign Power.
1683. Col. Rec. Pennsylv., I. 21. Other duties by any law or statute due to vs.
1690. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 61. The French peasantry are a slavish, cowardly people, because the laws of their country has made them slaves.
a. 1715. Burnet, Own Time (1734), II. 189. By the Portian Law, no Citizen could be put to Death for any Crime whatsoever.
17358. Bolingbroke, On Parties, 104. The Laws of the Land are known.
1843. Carlyle, Past & Pr., I. iii. And other idle Laws and Un-laws.
1856. Knight, 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.
c. 1470. Harding, Chron. LXXXVI. v. Wronge lawes maketh shorte gouernaunce.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 169. Tholde spoken proverbs, here toke place: New Lordes, new lawes.
1578. Timme, Caluine on Gen., 70. According to the common Proverb Of evil manners spring good laws.
1874. T. 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.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 109. Ȝif þe biscop bið ȝemeles, and þet folc butan steore eft butan laȝe.
c. 1250. Ten Abuses, in O. E. Misc., 184. Lond wið-ute laȝe [v.r. lawe].
a. 1327. Pol. Songs (Camden), 150. Thus wil walketh in londe, and lawe is for-lore.
1377. Langl., 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.
a. 1555. Ridley, Lament. Ch. (1566), D iv. The latter reason includeth a necessitie which, after the common sayinge, hathe no lawe.
1601. ? Marston, Pasquil & Kath., I. 68. Poore and neede hath no law.
1653. H. Cogan, trans. Pintos Trav., xlvi. 268. Necessity, which hath no law, compelled us thereunto.
1847. Marryat, Childr. N. Forest, xvii. Her father could not do otherwise. Necessity has no law.
1881. in 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].
b. (a) Laws in general, regarded as a class or species of human institutions. Court of law: see COURT sb.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.
c. 1430. Hymns Virg., 61. Quod resoun, in age of .xx. ȝeer, Goo to oxenford, or lerne lawe.
1611. Florio, Lecito, lawfull, good in law.
1635. Sibbes, Souls 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.
1644. Milton, Educ., 5. After this, they are to dive into the grounds of law, and legall justice.
1680. Dryden, Ovids Epist., Pref. He was designd to the Study of the Law.
1734. Swift, Drapiers 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.
180910. Coleridge, Friend (1865), 53. Juries do not sit in a court of conscience, but of law.
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), I. 114. A person having an estate by the operation of some principle of law.
1821. J. Q. Adams, in C. Davies, Metric Syst., III. (1871), 113. The pound of 15 ounces has never been recognised in England by law.
18414. Emerson, Ess., Experience, Wks. (Bohn), I. 188. The intellect judges law as well as fact.
1842. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., VI. xxiii. 359. He consults men learned in the law.
1882. Hinsdale, 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.
1891. Law 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 † laws 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.).]
c. 1230. Hali Meid., 21. Þis is tenne hare song þat beon ilahe of wedlac.
c. 1250. Gen. & Ex., 2764. To wife in laȝe he hire nam.
1538. Extracts Aberd. Reg. (1844), I. 154. Ionat Barbour, his moder of law.
1552. Latimer, Serm. 1st Sund. Epiph. (1584), 301 b. The house where Jesus was, with his mother, and Joseph his Father in the lawe.
1593. Q. Eliz., Boeth., I. pr. iv. 12. My holy lawes fathr Symmacus, defendes vs from all suspicion of this cryme.
[1594. Shaks., Rich. III., IV. i. 24. Their Aunt I am in law, in loue their Mother. Ibid. (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 ones will † upon (another). † To have (the) law to do something: to be commanded. † Law will I: arbitrary rule, making ones own will law.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 779. Ne lið hit nawt to þe to leggen lahe upon me.
a. 1340. Cursor M., 5729 (Fairf.). Moyses had þe lagh to kepe to his eldefadere shepe þat was þe prest of madian.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, ii. (Paulus), 202. To thre knychttis þane wes he tawcht, þat hym to sla son has lacht.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.s T., 306. Who shal yeue a louere any lawe?
a. 1564. Becon, Catech., Wks. 1564, I. 495. To convince them, not with fyre & fagot or with lawe will I.
1601. R. 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.
1617. Moryson, Itin., II. 63. He hoped shortly to give law to their irregular humours.
1656. B. Harris, Parivals Iron Age (1659), 142. Every body stood mute, at the expectation of a success, which was to give the Law.
1712. Swift, 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.
172631. Tindal, Rapins Hist. Eng. (1743), II. 110. The Gantois seeing their neighbours so powerful and able to give them law.
1775. Johnson, Tax. no Tyr., 79. No man ever could give law to language.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., iii. I. 397. In literature she gave law to the world.
1852. Thackeray, B. Lyndon, i. For a time Mr. Barry gave he law at Castle Brady.
1866. Conington, Æneid, V. 133. The wind gives law, your toil is vain.
predicatively. 1842. Tennyson, 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 fathers wishes were law.
4. 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, ecclesiastical, etc., law, the law of banking, of evidence, etc.; or according to the source from which it is derived, as statute law, customary law, case-law (see CASE sb.1), etc. (The) Canon Law: see CANON1 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.
157787. Holinshed, Hist. Scot., 284/1. Peter Mallart doctor of both lawes.
1808. Scott, 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 Shaks., 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.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Edw. IV., 229. He was an officer of armes (to whom credite, by the lawe of all nacions, ought to be geven).
1594. Hooker, 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.
c. 1651. Hobbes, Rhet. (1681), 39. The Law or Custom of Nations.
1723. Pres. State Russia, II. 283. Beaten, and contrary to the Law of Nations, taken into Custody.
1769. Blackstone, Comm., IV. 66. The law of nations is a system of rules established by universal consent among the civilized inhabitants of the world.
1870. Pall Mall Gaz., 24 Dec., 10. Between municipal law and international law, there is only a qualified and even a somewhat remote analogy.
1896. Lord 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.
1899. Justice 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.
1591. Lambarde, 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].
1818. Cruise, Digest (ed. 2), III. 460. He would give law and equity, and not pronounce upon law and equity.
1852. Dickens, 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 or bad law.
1593. [see 1 d].
1765. Blackstone, 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. Whats sound at Hippocrene, the Poets Spa, Is not at Westminster sound law!
1891. Ld. 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. (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.
c. 1340. Richard Rolle of Hampole, Prick of Conscience, 5942. Men of laghe [er halden] to travayle and to counsaile þam þat askes counsayle.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Prol., 309. A Sergeant of the lawe, war and wys. Ibid., Man of Laws Prol., Introd. 33. Sir man of lawe quod he, so have ye blis Tel us a tale anon.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst. xxx. 8. Ther may no man of lagh help with no quantyce.
1551. Robinson, trans. Mores Utop., II. (Arb.), 128. Euery man should tel the same tale before the iudge that he wold tel to his man of law.
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidanes Comm., 473. Leaving the practise of the law.
1563. B. Googe, Eglogs (Arb.), 75. Lawe gyues the gayne, and Physycke fyls the Purse.
1566. Acts & Constit. Scotl., To Rdr. ᛭ iij. Our Souerane Lady seing the Lawis to be for the maist part unknawin, bot to the Iugeis, and men of Law.
1592. Greene, Art Conny Catch., III. 14. They espied a Gentleman toward the lawe entring in and a countrey Clyent going with him.
c. 1780. Cowper, 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.
1630. Bp. Bedell, in Usshers Lett. (1686), 454. This Protestation having neither Latin, nor Law, nor common Sence, doth declare the Skill of him that drew it.
1645. Milton, Colast., Wks. 1851, IV. 348. These made the Champarty, hee contributed the Law, and both joynd in the Divinity.
1884. Church, Bacon, iii. 63. Coke thoroughly disliked Bacon. He thought lightly of his law.
8. 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.
c. 1450. Holland, Howlat, 224. The crovss Capone Was officiale that the law leidis In caussis consistoriale.
150020. Dunbar, Poems, xiii. 79. Sum bydand the law layis land in wed.
1523. Ld. Berners, Froiss., I. xii. 11. That she and her sonne shulde take ryght and lawe on them, accordyng to theyr desertis.
1526. Tindale, 1 Cor. vi. 1. Howe dare one of you goo to lawe vnder the wicked?
1535. Coverdale, Prov. xxv. 8. Be not haistie to go to the lawe.
1562. J. Heywood, Prov. & Epigr. (1867), 193. You beyng a pleader at law, Pray hir to let fall thaction at law now.
1565. T. 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.
1573. L. Lloid, 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.
1596. Spenser, 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.
c. 1630. Risdon, Surv. Devon, § 47 (1810), 54. There was a long suit in law.
1677. Yarranton, Eng. Improv., 24. For ten years there will be more Law than ever to clear up Titles.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 122, ¶ 4. A Fellow famous for taking the Law of every Body.
176271. H. Walpole, Vertues Anecd. Paint. (1786), V. 234. Dubosc, with whom he broke and went to law.
1780. Newgate Cal., V. 27. Surely no man in his senses would deliberately embark in law.
1796. Paine, 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.
1800. Mar. Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent, Gloss. 24. Ill have the law of you, so I will!is the saying of an Englishman who expects justice.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, I. v. ¶ 11. The hangers-on of the law.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, vi. 52. Theres a hackney-coachman down stairs vowing hell 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.
1891. E. 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 ones own hands: to redress ones own grievance, or punish an offender, without obtaining judicial assistance. To have the law in ones own hands: to possess the means of redress, to be master of the situation.
1573. G. Harvey, Letter-bk. (Camden), 3. The law was now in there own hands.
c. Halifax law, Lidford law: the summary procedure of certain local tribunals that 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.
1565. Jewel, Repl. Harding (1611), 356. But heere he thought to call vs Theeues, and wicked Judges, and to charge vs with the Law of Lydford.
1589. Hay any Work, A iij. Non would be so groshead as to gather that I threatned him with blowes, and to deale by Stafford law.
a. 1641. Wentworth, Lett. 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.
1710. Brit. Apollo, II. No. 3. 5/2. First Hang and Draw, Then hear the cause by Lidford Law.
** Divine law.
9. The body of commandments that 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 Gods (Christs law), the law of God.
a. 1023. Wulfstan, Hom. (1883), 158. Godes laʓe healdan.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 55. Halde we godes laȝe.
c. 1205. Lay., 14803. He tahte þan folke godes læȝe.
c. 1275. Passion our Lord, 674, in O. E. Misc., 56. Seoþþe in alle londes hi eoden vor to prechen, and godes lawe techen.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 2690. Ful wel þis lagh sal he yeme.
c. 1330. Spec. Gy Warw., 38. A good man Þat liuede al in godes lawe.
1380. Wyclif, Serm., Sel. Wks. I. 26. To þis ende shulden clerkes traveile for love of Goddis lawe. Ibid. (1382), Rom. vii. 25. I my silf by resoun of the soule serue to the lawe of God.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 289/2. Law of Godde.
c. 1485. Digby Myst. (1882), III. 1857. Crystes servont and yower to be, & þe lave of hym ever to fulfyll.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 246. To be observed by christen men, as consonant to the law of God.
1683. Tryon, 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.
c. 1025. Rule St. Benet (Logeman), 88. Si ʓeræd ætforan þam cuman seo godcunde laʓe.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 81. In þisse worlde [sc. the age before Moses] nas na laʓe, ne na larþeu.
a. 1300. E. E. Psalter i. 2. Bot in lagh ofe lauerd his wille be ai, And his lagh thinke he night and dai.
1567. Good & Godly Ball. (S.T.S.), 190. Goddis word and lawis the peple misknawis.
1611. Bible, Ps. i. 2. His delight is in the Law of the Lord.
1719. Watts, 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.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 964. Hit is aȝein riht ant aȝein leaue of euch cundelich lahe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 28491 (Cott.). And haf i broken wit foly, Þe lagh o kynd thoru licheri. Ibid. (c. 1340), 1576 (Trin.). Þe lawe of soþenes ny of kynde Wolde þei no tyme fynde.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 272. But he the bestes wolde binde Only to lawes of nature.
c. 1470. G. Ashby, Active Policy Prince, 695, Poems 34. If forgoten be al lawe positife, Remembre the noble lawe of nature.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, II. Proem. The Athenyens the whiche lyued after the lawe of Kynde.
1513. More, in Grafton, Chron. (1568), II. 774. The lawe of nature wylleth the mother to keepe the childe.
1531. St. 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.
a. 1548. Hall, 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.
1594. Hooker, Eccl. Pol., I. viii. § 8. The Law of Reason or Human Nature. § 9. Laws of Reason.
1597. Shaks., 2 Hen. IV., III. ii. 357. If the young Dace be a Bayt for the old Pike, I see no reason, in the Law of Nature, but I may snap at him.
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.
1692. South, 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.
1712. Berkeley, Passive Obed., § 33. Self-preservation is the very first and fundamental law of nature.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. Introd. § 2. 39. This will of his maker is called the law of nature.
1780. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., Wks. 1843, I. 9. Instead of the phrase, Law of Nature, you have sometimes Law of Reason.
1878. Gladstone, Prim. Homer, 109. Natural law was profoundly revered, while conventional law hardly yet existed.
10. 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 or Jewish law, etc.
c. 1000. Ælfric, O. T., in Grein, Ags. Prosa, I. 5. God him sette æ, þæt ys open laʓu, þam folce to steore.
c. 1200. Ormin, 1961. Annd tatt wass ned tatt, ȝho wass þa Wiþþ Godess laȝhe weddedd.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 2500. I þe munt of Synai þer Moyses fatte þe lahe et ure lauerd.
c. 1250. O. Kent. Serm., in O. E. Misc., 26. Þo dede he somoni alle þo wyse clerekes þet kuþe þe laghe.
a. 1300. Cursor M., 6451, heading (Gött.). Tell i sal of moyses law.
c. 1330. Spec. Gy Warw., 358. At þe mount of Synay þar god him ȝaf þe firste lawe.
1398. Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. xxvi. (1495), 363. Alway in the Saterdaye preestes declaryd and expownyd the lawe to the peple.
a. 140050. Alexander, 1546. Iustis of iewry & iogis of the lawe.
c. 1585. R. Browne, Answ. Cartwright, 54. They read in the Booke of the Lawe.
1611. Bible, Rom. ii. 14. The Gentiles which haue not the Law, doe by nature the things contained in the Law: these hauing not the Law, are a Law vnto themselues.
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.
1382. Wyclif, Gal. iii. 11. No man is justified in the lowe anentis God.
1529. Frith, Pistle Chr. Rdr. (1829), 461. The law was given us, that we might know what to do and what to eschew.
1595. Shaks., John, II. i. 180. The Canon of the Law is laide on him.
1758. S. Hayward, Serm., i. 2. To guard the Galatians against a dependence on the law.
1827. Keble, Chr. Y., Easter Sunday 20. No brighter Than Reasons or the Laws pale beams.
1842. J. H. Newman, Par. Serm., VI. i. 2. Vain were all the deeds of the Law.
1859. J. Cumming, Ruth, vi. 109. By what he suffered I escape the laws curse.
c. The Pentateuch as distinguished from the other portions of the Old Testament Scriptures.
1382. Wyclif, John viii. 5. Moses in the lawe comaundide vs for to stoone siche.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 298 b. O very messyas, promysed in the lawe for mannes redempcyon.
1611. Bible, 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.
c. 1000. Ælfrics Past. Ep., xl. in Thorpe, Laws, II. 380. Nu is seo ealde laʓu ʓeendod æfter Cristes to-cyme.
a. 1175. Cott. Hom., 235. Þas fif cheðen beoð fif laȝan for þan þe god is þurh þesen ȝecnowe.
c. 1200. Vices & Virtues (1888), 7. Aiðer ðurh ðare ealde laȝwe and iec ðurh ðare niewe.
c. 1200. Trin. 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.
a. 1225. Ancr. R., 58. Uorþi was ihoten a Godes half iðen olde lawe þæt put were euer iwrien.
a. 1300. Cursor 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.
a. 1340. Hampole, Psalter, cxviii. 99. I vndirstode bettire þan þe doctors of þe alde laghe.
c. 1450. Compendious 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.
1542. Becon, 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, Mohammedan or Pagan religion. By my law: by my faith; also to swear ones law. Cf. LAY sb.3
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 1349. We leaueð þi lahe Ant turneð alle to Criste.
c. 1290. S. Eng. Leg., I. 17/564. Heore lawe nas riȝt nouȝt, Þat ne bi-liefden nouȝt on þe rode.
a. 1300. K. Horn, 65. Hi here laȝe asoke.
13[?]. Sir Beues (A.), 1780. Þe seue kniȝtes of heþen lawe Beues slouȝ that ilche stounde.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, vii. (Jacobus Minor), 190. Faraseis & wysmene of Iowis lach mad answere þane.
a. 1400. Pistill of Susan, 3. He was so lele in his lawe.
c. 1400. Maundev. (1839), xxiii. 252. Thei suffren, that folk of alle Lawes may peysibely duellen amonges hem.
a. 140050. Alexander, 4306. In him we lely beleue & in na laȝe ellis.
c. 1450. St. Cuthbert (Surtees), 4824. And forsake his paynym lawe.
c. 1477. Caxton, Jason, 86 b. By my lawe sire sayd Mopsius I see no way.
c. 1500. Melusine, xlix. 324. He sware hys lawe that lytel or nought he shuld entrete hym.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage (1614), 312. But the Mufti being highest Interpreter of their Law must indeed have preeminence.
1685. Stillingfl., 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.)
1594. Hooker, 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.
1611. Bible, Transl. Pref., 3. The Scripture is a Pandect of profitable lawes, against rebellious spirits.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxvi. 137. My designe being not to shew what is Law here, and there, but what is Law.
1690. Locke, Govt., II. vi. § 57. Law, in its proper Notion, is the Direction of a free and intelligent Agent to his proper Interest.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. 39. This then is the general signification of law, a rule of action dictated by some superior being.
1836. J. Gilbert, Chr. Atonem., Notes (1852), 344. Law speaks the language of indignation against crime.
1889. Ruskin, 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. 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.
c. 1175. Lamb. Hom., 25. Þenne hafest þu þes hundes laȝe, Þe nu speoweð and ef[t] hit fret.
c. 1200. Ormin, 2373. Ȝho wollde ben Rihht laȝhelike fesstnedd Wiþþ macche, swa summ i þatt ald wass laȝhe to ben fesstned.
c. 1220. Bestiary, 23. Ðe ðridde laȝe haueð ðe leun.
a. 1225. Juliana, 10. Ȝef þu wult leauen þe lahen þat tu list in.
a. 1300. K. 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.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 322. Þe lord of Badenauh Lyued at theues lauh.
a. 140050. Alexander, 4402. A-nothire laȝe is in ȝoure lande at oure lord hatis.
1535. Coverdale, 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.
c. 1550. Dice-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.
1591. Greene, 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.
c. 1200. Ormin, 6256. Þe birrþ himm biddenn don þe rihht & laȝhe.
c. 1250. Gen. & 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.
c. 1330. R. Brunne, Chron. (1810), 113. Dauid did but lawe, Mald had his seruage.
c. 1340. Cursor M., 13052 (Trin.). Ȝitt is she þi broþer wif whom þou shuldes not haue with lawe.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 1278. To deme betwen al maner of folke wythout goynge assyd owt of lawe.
a. 140050. Alexander, 4666. Neuir-þe-les of a laȝe hald we vs driȝtins.
c. 1440. York Myst., viii. 10. Alle in lawe to lede þer lyffe.
16. 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.
a. 1225. [see 3 d].
a. 1300. Cursor M., 7940. Godd mad þe king of israel, To lede þe folk wit laghes lel.
1422. trans. Secreta Secret., Priv. Priv., 149. Ouer al thynge the wysdome of a kyng sholde his law gouerne aftyr the law of god.
c. 1460. Towneley Myst., xxviii. 44. Wherfor in woman is no laghe ffor she is withoutten aghe.
1611. Bible, Rom. ii. 14. These [the Gentiles] hauing not the Law, are a Law vnto themselues.
1638. R. Baker, trans. Balzacs Lett. (vol. III.), 102. And the lawes of decencie are so ancient, that they seem to be a part of the ancient religion.
1671. L. 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.
1683. Tryon, 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.
1736. Butler, Anal., I. iv. 134. A few who shamelessly avow their mere will and pleasure to be their law of life.
1742. Hoyle (title), A short treatise on the game of Whist. Containing the laws of the game.
1837. Sir 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.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng., I. i. 29. Self-protection is the first law of life.
1867. (title) The laws of Football, as played at Rugby School.
1877. E. R. Conder, Bas. Faith, vi. 259. A moral law states what ought to be.
b. The code or body of rules recognized in a specified department of action. Law of arms: the recognized custom of professional soldiers; † also, the rules of heraldry. Law of honour (see HONOUR sb. 9 h).
a. 1300. Cursor M., 26276. Lagh o penance will þat [etc.].
1486. Bk. St. Albans, E iij. By the law of venery as I dare vnder take.
c. 1500. in Q. Eliz. Acad. (1879), 100. Law of armys disponys ffor theme be sett and portrait with pictouris.
1530. Palsgr., 237/2. Lawe of armes, droict darmes.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 255. He might have kepte theim in straite prison, by juste lawe of Armes.
1557. Tottells Misc. (Arb.), 139. Of louers lawe he toke no cure.
1626. Jackson, Creed, VIII. xiv. § 2. Unto Satan the professed rebel against him he did vouchsafe the benefit of the law of Armes or duel.
III. Scientific and philosophical uses.
17. 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.
1665. Phil. Trans., I. 31. The changes be varied according to very odd Laws.
1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl., IV. vi. The Wisdome of God does confine the creatures to the establishd Laws of Nature.
1690. Locke, 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.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 698. Happy the Man, who, studying Natures Laws, Thro known Effects can trace the secret Cause.
1755. Johnson, Law, an established and constant mode or process; a fixed correspondence of cause and effect.
1764. Reid, Inquiry, vi. § 13. The laws of nature are nothing else but the most general facts relating to the operations of nature.
1794. Hutton, Philos. Light, etc., 16. We name those rules of action the laws of nature.
1827. Whately, Logic (1837), 361. The conformity of individual cases to the general rule is that which constitutes a Law of Nature.
1865. Reader, 29 April, 484/3. A Law expresses an invariable order of phenomena or facts.
1875. Maine, Hist. Instit. (ed. 4), 373. Law has been applied derivatively to the orderly sequences of Nature.
1883. H. Drummond, Nat. Law in Spir. W. (ed. 2), 5. The Laws of Nature are simply statements of the orderly condition of things in Nature.
1898. G. Meredith, Odes Fr. Hist., 62. Those firm laws Which we name Gods.
b. With reference to a particular science or field of inquiry.
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.
1668. Phil. 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. Ibid. (1669), IV. 925. A Summary Account Of the Laws of Motion, communicated by Mr. Christian Hugens in a Letter to the R. Society.
1726. trans. Gregorys Astron., I. 112. The Law of Attraction being the same as before.
172753. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Motion, The general laws of motion were first brought into a system by Dr. Wallis, Sir Christopher Wren, and M. Huygens.
1765. Blackstone, Comm., I. Introd. § 2. 38. The laws of motion, of gravitation, of optics, or mechanics.
1849. Macaulay, 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.
1854. Brewster, More Worlds, xv. 221. The law of universal gravitation is established for several of these systems.
1857. S. P. Hall, in Merc. Marine Mag. (1858), V. 11. It does seem strange that greater attention is not given to the Law of Storms.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., II. xi. 289. As regards the motion of the surface of a glacier, two laws are to be borne in mind.
1864. Bowen, 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.
1877. E. R. Conder, Bas. Faith, iii. 122. The laws of reasoning and of duty.
1884. trans. Lotzes 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.
Bodes 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. Keplers laws, the three propositions established by John Kepler (15711630) 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.
1781. Chambers Cycl., Keplers Law, is that law of the planetary motions discovered by Kepler.
1805. Edin. Rev., Jan., 443. Keplers Laws.
1833. Herschel, Astron., Index, Bodes law of planetary distances.
1837. Whewell, Hist. Induct. Sci., I. 416. One of the important rules known to us as Keplers laws.
(b) Physics.
Avogadros law, the law that equal volumes of different gases, pressure and temperature being equal, contain the same number of molecules. Boyles 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. Charless law, the law discovered by Alex. César Charles (17461823) that for every degree centigrade of rise in temperature, the volume of a gas increases by ·00366 of its amount at zero. Dulong and Petits law, the law that all the chemical elements have approximately the same atomic heat.
1860. Maxwell, Sci. Papers (1890), I. 389. Boyle and Mariottes law.
1863. Atkinson, Ganots 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 Boyles, and on the continent of Mariottis. Ibid., 288. Dulong and Petits law may be thus expressed; the same quantity of heat is needed to heat an atom of all simple bodies to the same extent.
1880. Cleminshaw, trans. Wurtz Atom. The., 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.
1884. Daniell, Princ. Physics, 223. Then the volume varies as the absolute temperature (Charless Law, often attributed to Gay Lussac).
(c) Philology.
Grimms 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. Grimms 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 Grimms law is still applied to its rectified form, which is too complicated to be stated here. Verners law, discovered by Karl Verner of Copenhagen in 1875, deals with a class of exceptions to Grimms 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. Grassmanns 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.
1841. Latham, Eng. Lang., 190. An important fact relating to the change of consonants, which is currently called Grimms Law.
1878. Sweet, in Academy, 9 Feb., 123/2. Verners law [explained].
(d) Pol. Econ.
Greshams law, the principle involved in Sir Thomas Greshams 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.
1858. Macleod, 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 Greshams law of the currency.
18. In generalized sense: Laws (of Nature) in general; the order and regularity in Nature of which laws are the expression.
a. 1853. Robertson, Serm., Ser. IV. iii. (1876), 26. Such an event is invariably followed by such a consequence. This we call law.
1865. Mozley, Mirac., ii. 39. In the argument against miracles the first objection is that they are against law.
1866. Dk. Argyll, Reign Law, ii. (1867), 64. We have Law as applied simply to an observed Order of facts.
1873. H. 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.
1883. H. 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.
180517. R. Jameson, Char. Min. (ed. 3), 163. The law which produces an octahedron from a cube.
IV. 20. 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).
1600. R. Whyte, in Nichols, Progr. Q. Eliz., III. 91. Hir Grace sawe sixteen buckes (all having fayre lawe) pulled downe with greyhoundes, in a laund.
1607. Markham, Caval., III. (1617), 82. That the formost getting his law of the hindmost, do win the wager. Ibid. (1611), Country Content., I. vii. (1668), 43. That the Fewterer shall give the Hare twelve score Law, ere he loose the Greyhounds.
16667. Denham, Direct. Paint., I. v. 7. So Huntsmen fair unto the Hares give Law.
1704. Collect. Voy. (Churchill), III. 40/1. If the Bird has Law of him, he will hardly overtake him.
1706. E. Ward, Hud. Rediv. (1707), I. I. 22. The silly Hare Having good Law, sat down to rest her.
1787. G. White, Selborne, vi. (1789), 18. When the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they gave him, by their watches, law, for twenty minutes.
1811. Sporting Mag., XXXIX. 142. Give her law and shell hold it a mile.
1829. J. R. Best, Pers. & Lit. Mem., 77. The accident was owing to his giving his horse too much law.
1861. 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.
1883. E. Pennell-Elmhirst, Cream Leicestersh., 312. The pack were now together, the fox had gained but little law.
b. Hence, Indulgence, mercy.
1649. Fuller, Just Mans Funeral, 17. God will give them fair law.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. xi. (1840), 236. Merchant-ships show but little law to pirates, if they get them in their power.
1848. J. H. Newman, Loss & Gain, 289. We shall have you back again among us by next Christmas I cant give you greater law.
1849. E. E. Napier, Excurs. S. Africa, II. 101. The on dit is that he has ten days more law.
1879. Geo. 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, dictionary, -faculty, language, -learning, -library, -lore, -pedant, -point, -school, -student, -tractate, -vocable, -word; pertaining to the legal profession, as law-craft, -gentleman, -list, -person, † -solicitor; pertaining to forensic procedure and litigation, as in † law-bar, -case, -charges, -chicanery, costs, -court, -fight, -quirk, -reports, -sale, -suitor, -writings; pertaining to the Mosaic dispensation or to the law in opposition to the gospel, as in law-covenant, -curse, -work, -worker.
1818. Cobbett, Pol. Reg., XXXIII. 381. His book is the greatest of all *Law-Authorities.
1602. Warner, Alb. Eng., XII. lxxiii. 302. At Westminsters *Law-Barres.
1710. Tatler, No. 190, ¶ 3. No one would offer to put a *Law-Case to me.
1776. Foote, Bankrupt, III. Wks. 1799, II. 126. The Attorney General to the paper, that answers the law cases, is not come yet.
1669. Marvell, Corr., cxii. Wks. 18725, II. 271. Your *law-charges here amount not to 5li.
1819. Hermit in London, II. 135. Long acquainted with law-persons and law-charges.
1795. Burke, Tracts Popery Laws, iv. Wks. IX. 394. Vexatious litigation and crooked *law-chicanery.
1618. Bolton, Florus, IV. xii. (1636), 325. Hee durst set up a *Law-court, and sit in judgement within his Campe.
176874. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), II. 258. Justification is a term taken from the law-courts.
1878. N. Amer. Rev., CXXVII. 57. Condemned by the law-courts.
1803. A. Swanston, Serm. & Lect., II. 168. The term of the *law-covenant might be somewhat relaxed.
1587. Golding, De Mornay, xx. (1617), 345. *Lawecraft hath almost as many sundry lawes as cases.
1832. Southey, in Q. Rev., XLVII. 504. The sober follies which disgrace our law-craft.
1786. A. Gib, Sacred Contempl., II. I. iii. 177. Through a full effect of the *law-curse to which they are naturally subjected.
1594. Carew, Huartes Exam. Wits, xi. (1596), 154. In the *law-faculty euery law containeth a seueral particular case.
1880. Mrs. Oliphant, He that will not, etc. xxxi. He could not fight for his inheritance unless indeed it were a *law-fight in the courts.
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xlvi. If you *law-gentlemen do these things on speculation, why you must get a loss now and then you know.
1808. Bentham, Sc. Reform, 43. *Law-learning, with falshood for the basis of it.
1799. H. K. White, Let to bro. Neville, Rem. (1825), 179. With a very large *law library to refer to.
1852. Dickens, Bleak Ho., x. Almanacs, diaries, and *law-lists.
1812. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1830), IV. 179. The chaos of *law-lore from which we wished to be emancipated.
1751. H. 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].
1819. Scott, in Biog. Notices, ii. (1880), 385. If a *lawpoint were submitted to him.
1667. Decay Chr. Piety, vii. ¶ 10. Solicitous to leave nothing to the mercy of a *law-quirk.
1888. Lighthall, Yng. Seigneur, 70. Before the parish church, just after mass on Sunday forenoon, the bailiff cries his *law-sales.
1738. Warburton, Div. Legat., I. 431. That known Story of two *Law Sollicitors.
1884. Harpers Mag., LXVIII. 817/1. The next call was upon S, a young *law-student.
a. 1720. Sheffield (Dk. Buckhm.), Wks. (1753), I. 160. We did not, as *law-suitors for contention, Disburse more charges than the prize was worth.
1880. Gladstone, in Daily News, 17 June, 2/4. Allowing for all the differences in the *law system of the two countries.
1649. Milton, Eikon., v. 45. To which and other *Law-tractats I referr the more Lawyerlie mooting of this point.
1845. Carlyle, Cromwell (1871), V. 60. Hundreds of *Law-vocables.
a. 1654. Selden, Table-T. (Arb.), 64. Allodium is a *Law-word contrairy to Feudum.
1645. Rutherford, 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.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xii. Wi ony rag of human righteousness, or formal law-work.
1860. N. Macmichael, Pilgrim Ps., 251. Law-work keeps him struggling for years before he finds peace in believing.
1577. Vautrouillier, 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.
1701. Lond. 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, -calf, -sheep.
172751. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Book-binding, French-binding, law-binding, marble-binding [etc.].
1837. Dickens, Pickw., xxxiv. Goodly octavos, with a red label behind, and that underdone-pie-crust-coloured cover, which is technically known as law-calf.
1879. Cassells Techn. Educ., IV. 89/1. The uncoloured skin is used in the peculiar style of binding called Law.
1895. J. 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, -guilt, -infant, obligation, † power, reckoning, righteousness; law-honest adj.
1850. Robertson, Serm., Ser. III. v. 65. Goodness which is produced by rewards and punishments*law goodness, *law-righteousness.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 197. Not only shall justification free us from all *law-guilt but [etc.].
1873. Spectator, 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.
1810. Sporting Mag., XXXV. 62. The consent and approbation of the fair *law-infant.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 201. Christs pardon in like manner doth remove a *law-obligation to eternal death.
1647. Mercurius 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.
1800. A. Swanston, Serm. & Lect., I. 326. The sufferings which Christ endured are his by Gods gracious imputation and in *law-reckoning.
22. a. Objective, as law-bearer, -evader, -framer, -fulfiller, † -monger, -preacher, † -racker; law-catching, -making, -preaching vbl. sbs.; law-magnifying vbl. sb. and ppl. a.; law-contemning, -cracking, -loving, † -monging, -revering adjs. b. Instrumental, as law-beaten, -bound, -condemned, -forced, -locked, -made, -ridden adjs. c. Locative, as law-learned adj.; hence law-learnedness.
1483. Cath. Angl., 210/2. A *Law berer, legifer.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., Wks. 1851, IV. 190. Let the buyer beware, saith the old *Law-beaten terme.
a. 1613. Overbury, Charac., Franklin, Wks. (1856), 149. To bee *law-bound among men, is like to be hide-bound among his beasts.
1625. Fletcher & Shirley, Night-Walker, IV. i. Ill let my Lady go a-foot a *Law-catching.
1681. Flavel, Meth. Grace, vi. 120. I am a *law-condemned, and a self-condemned sinner.
1805. Scott, Last Minstrel, IV. xxiv. Your *law contemning kinsmen.
1606. Wily Beguiled, B 4 b. This *lawcracking cogfoyst.
1894. H. Gardener, Unoff. Patriot, 2. Being both a law-breaker and a *law-evader.
1794. Coleridge, Relig. Musings, I. 102. The morsel tossd by *law-forced charity.
1876. Fox Bourne, Locke, III. xiii. 3923. Expert *law-framers.
1870. Spurgeon, Treas. Dav., Ps. xl. 8. The atoning sacrifice, the *law-fulfiller.
1606. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. iv. II. Trophies, 1308. The *Law-learnd Sage.
16589. Burtons Diary (1828), IV. 121. A law-learned head and an eloquent tongue.
1895. Jane Menzies, Cynewulfs Elene, 38.
Then boldly to my sire I answer made, | |
Een to the law-learned one, the ancient sage. |
1826. Bentham, in Westm. Rev., Oct., 492. *Law-learnedness in this and the higher grade.
1886. G. Allen, Maimies Sake, xiv. We must behave ourselves like civilized people, clothed and *law-locked.
1698. Sylvester, Du Bartas, II. ii. III. Colonies, 424. Th ingenious, Towr-full, and *Law-loving Soil, Which Jove did with his Lemans name en-stile.
1622. Drayton, Poly-olb., XXII. 113. His father the lord Wells, who he supposd might sway His so outrageous son with his lovd *law-made brother, Sir Thomas Dymock.
1744. E. Erskine, Serm., Wks. 1871, III. 185. The *law-magnifying righteousness of Christ.
1786. A. Gib, Sacred Contempl., 337. The justice-satisfying and law-magnifying nature of his atonement.
1690. Child, Disc. Trade (ed. 4), 33. Every nation does proceed according to peculiar methods of their own in *law-making.
1645. Milton, Colast., 18. Though this catering *Law-monger bee bold to call it wicked.
a. 1693. Urquharts Rabelais, III. xliv. 362. *Law-monging Attorneys.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 144. Your *law-preachers lead men from the foundation, Christ.
1875. E. White, Life in Christ, III. xxii. (1878), 322. Those antediluvians who had heard the *law-preaching of Enoch and of Noah.
1635. Brathwait, Arcad. Pr., 217. If I should be Judge, *Law-rackers should be all made readers of the Anatomy Lecture in Plutos court.
1862. S. Lucas, Secularia, 200. Their act is memorably characteristic of our *law-revering race.
1835. Marryat, Olla Podr., iii. England is no longer priest-ridden but she is *law-ridden.
1874. Helps, Soc. Press., ii. 23. A very considerably law-ridden country.
23. Special comb.: law-act, (a) a transaction in law; (b) (see ACT sb. 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-copyist, a scrivener; † law-daughter (see 3 c above); † law-driver, one who drives or works at the law; a lawyer; † 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 lawyers 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-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.
1645. Rutherford, Tryal & Tri. Faith (1845), 215. The renewed apprehension of the grace of God maketh not a new forensical and *law-act.
1708. J. 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.
1847. W. Carleton, Traits Irish Peasantry (1860), II. 5. The consoling reflection that he swore only on a *Law Bible.
1836. Sir 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.
1826. in Cobbett, Rur. Rides (1885), II. 185. He wishes to support the *law-church, and the army.
1845. G. Oliver, Biog. Jesuits, 42. A minister of the Law-church was called in for his opinion.
1853. H. Melville, in Putnams Mag., Nov., 546/1. An interesting and somewhat singular set of men, of whom as yet nothing that I know of has ever been written:I mean the *law-copyists or scriveners.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 60. And Hecuba old Princesse dyd I see, with number, an hundred *Law daughters.
1625. Fletcher & Shirley, Nt. Walker, IV. i. Shes the merriest thing among these *law-drivers, And in their studies half a day together.
1583. Stanyhurst, Æneis, II. (Arb.), 54. Next cooms thee lusty Choroebus Soon to king Priamus by law: thus he *lawfather helping.
a. 1670. Spalding, 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.
1644. Milton, Educ., Wks. (1847), 99/2. To smatter Latin with an English mouth, is as ill a hearing as *law French.
1876. Digby, Real Prop., v. 205, note. The reports in the Year Books are written in the strange jargon called law-French.
a. 1610. Healey, Theophrastus (1636), 91. Strouting it in the *Lawe house, saying; There is no dwelling in this Citie.
1644. Milton, Areop. (Arb.), 49. That no Poet should so much as read to any privat man, what he had writtn, untill the Judges and *Law-keepers had seen it.
1894. 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.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 192. He hates all but *Law-Latine.
1713. Berkeley, Guardian, No. 62, ¶ 4. An imitation of the polite style, is abandoned for law-Latin.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., v. I ken our law-latin offends Mr. Butlers ears.
1773. Burke, Corr. (1844), I. 444. The measure will not be opposed in council by any great *law-lord in the kingdom.
1883. Freeman, 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.
1901. Dundee Advertiser, 12 April. Lord Newbottlethere never was such a title in the Scottish Peerage, though it was a law-lords title.
1882. Daily News, 3 June, 2/2. An Irish Judge had been nominated to fill one of the *law-lordships of the House of Lords.
1789. Wolcot (P. Pindar), Expost. Ode, vi. Wks. 1812, II. 228. Perchance *Law Neck-cloths, formd of deal or oak Shall rudely hug his harmless throat.
1896. Chatauqua Mag., Dec., 322/1. The daily routine and drudgery of a *law-office.
1781. Sir W. Jones, Ess. Bailments, 85. The great *law-officer of the Othman court.
1817. Sp. Earl Liverpool, in Parl. Debates, 778. It might turn out, that the law officers in 1801 had acted upon their own opinion.
1896. Daily News, 1 July, 7/2. An Under-Secretaryship for India was a poor substitute for a *Law Officership.
1587. in Buccleuch MSS. (Hist. MSS. Comm.), 25. A *Lawe place now voyde by the departure of Mr Doctor Day.
a. 1771. J. Gill, in Treas. Dav., Ps. cxix. 122. Put himself in their law-place and stead, and became responsible to law and justice for them.
1741. Compl. 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.
1645. Milton, Tetrach., 55. Heerin declaring his annotation to be slight & nothing *law prudent. Ibid., Colast., 16. The Servitor declaring his capacity nothing refind since his *Law-puddering, but still the same it was in the Pantry, and at the Dresser.
1572. L. Lloyd, Pilgr. Pr. (1607), 65. Lycurgus that auncient *law-setter.
1693. Dryden, Juvenal (1697), p. lxvi. Writings, which my Author Tacitus, from the *Law-Term, calls famosos libellos.
1758. S. Hayward, Serm., i. 11. The word Condemnation is a law-term.
1580. Hollyband, Treas. Fr. Tong, Legislateur, a Law-maker, a *lawe-writer.