Lawless

a. [f. LAW sb.¹ + -LESS.]

  1.  Without law, having no laws; ignorant of, or not regulated by law. Of a law: Not based on principles of right. Now rare.

a. 1200.  Moral Ode, 291. Þer buð þo heþenemen, þe were lawelese [v.r. laȝe-lease].

a. 1327.  Pol. Songs (Camden), 254. For miht is riht, the lond is laweles.

1340–70.  Alex. & Dind., 906. For as bestes ȝe ben by no skile reuled,… So be ȝe, ludus, by-lad & lawe-les alse.

1470–85.  Malory, Arthur, I. xix. Ther was oomen in to their landes people that were laules.

1598.  Hakluyt, Voy., I. 20. A barbarous and inhumane people whose law is lawlesse.

a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Sp. Defence Convocation. Shall the enemies of the Church … say we are a lawless Church?

1789.  Belsham, Ess., I. 4. If the determinations of the will are themselves lawless and uncertain.

1812.  Byron, Ch. Har., II. xlvii. Albania’s chief, whose dread command Is lawless law.

1836.  W. Irving, Astoria, III. 254. Commercial feuds in the lawless depths of the wilderness.

  b.  Exempt from law, not within the province of law, above or beyond the reach of law. † Also, in the position of an outlaw.

c. 1250.  Bracton, De Legibus, III. tract. II. xi. § 1. & extunc utlagabitur, sicut ille qui est extra legem, sicut Laughelesman [v.r. Laghelesman].

1602.  How to choose good wife, H 4. I haue procur’d a licence, and this night We will be married in a lawlesse Church.

1632.  Massinger, City Madam, V. ii. You shall find you are not lawless, and that your moneys Cannot justify your villanies.

1656.  S. H., Gold. Law, 49. He is not bound to it, for the Lord of the Law is Lawless.

1685.  Baxter, Paraphr. N. T., Matt. xii. 37. Christ hath not made us lawless … in vain.

1865.  Mozley, Mirac., vi. 117. Such an anomalous occurrence would be lawless, and a contradiction to known law.

  2.  Of persons, their actions: Regardless of, or disobedient to law. † Occas. of an action: Illegal, unlawful (obs.). Of passions, etc.: Uncontrolled by law, unbridled, licentious.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 7304 (Gött.). For nouþer er ȝe war ne wise, Bot for ȝour riches ouer lawe-lis.

13[?].  E. E. Allit. P., C. 170. I leue here be sum losynger, sum lawles wrech.

c. 1394.  P. Pl. Crede, 609. It is a laweles lijf as lordynges vsen.

14[?].  Siege Jerusalem, 25/496. Lat neuer þis lawles ledis lauȝ at his harmys.

1576.  Fleming, Panopl. Epist., 36. Great is the lawlesse laying on of the sword and warlike weapon.

1588.  Shaks., Tit. A., I. i. 312. A Valliant sonne in-law thou shalt enioy: One, fit to bandy with thy lawlesse Sonnes. Ibid. (1591), Two Gent., IV. i. 54. That they may hold excus’d our lawlesse liues. Ibid. (1594), Rich. III., I. iv. 224. He needs no indirect or lawlesse course, To cut off those that haue offended him.

1604.  Dekker, Honest Wh., Wks. 1873, II. 133. Lawlesse desires are seas scorning all bounds.

1642.  Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. xiv. 411. At the Innes of Court under pretence to learn Law, he learns to be lawlesse.

1697.  Dryden, Virg. Georg., II. 637. Wine urg’d to lawless Lust the Centaurs Train.

a. 1704.  T. Brown, Sat. Woman, Wks. 1730, I. 56. Revenge implacable, and lawless fires.

1812.  Crabbe, Tales, 3. Beneath him fix’d, our man of law, That lawless man the foe of order, saw.

1846.  Keble, Lyra Innoc. (1873), 40. Shaming lawless mirth.

1855.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., xiii. III. 326. He should be protected against lawless violence.

1888.  M. Morris, Claverhouse, x. 183. Among these lawless spirits, he who would be obeyed must be feared.

  absol.  1557.  N. T. (Genev.), 1 Tim. i. 9. The Lawe is … geuen vnto the lawles.

1809–10.  Coleridge, Friend (1865), 137. I have said that to withstand the arguments of the lawless, the Anti-jacobins proposed to suspend the law.

  b.  said of animals and inanimate objects.

1738.  Wesley, Psalms, LXXXIX. vi. Thou dost the lawless Sea controul.

1781.  Gibbon, Decl. & F., lxxi. III. 803. The lawless river overturned the palaces … on its banks.

1854.  Badham, Halieut., 154. A prison for wild lawless birds.

  Hence Lawlessly adv., in a lawless manner.

1591.  Shaks., Two Gent., V. iii. 14. He … will not vse a woman lawlesly.

a. 1656.  Bp. Hall, Imposition Hands, § 14. Wks. 1808, IX. 808. How lawlessly vicious are the lives of too many.