law

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"As long as the law is the law, which is difficult to women, I don't think it will change much," said Dima Nashashibi of the Palestinian Women's Centre for Legal Aid and Counselling.

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Definitions (296)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (26)

  1. noun A rule of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority.
  2. noun The body of rules and principles governing the affairs of a community and enforced by a political authority; a legal system: international law.
  3. noun The condition of social order and justice created by adherence to such a system: a breakdown of law and civilized behavior.
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Examples (50)

  • My parents deemed it necessary that I should adopt some profession, they named the law; the law was as agreeable to me as any other profession within my reach, so I page 180 p. 180 adopted the law, and the consequence was, that Blackstone, probably for the first time, found himself in company with Ab Gwilym. —  Lavengro
  • They assume that the law is the law, and that's all there is to say.
  • "As long as the law is the law, which is difficult to women, I don't think it will change much," said Dima Nashashibi of the Palestinian Women's Center for Legal Aid and Counseling.
  • The final authority in English law was the particular case, which had to be studied with all its facts, in order to extract the law which was its ratio decidendi. —  Brits at their Best
  • The law is the law is the law, and that fact doesn't change based on the reason for breaking it. —  Progressive Bloggers
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eight magic words · anton piller order · mareva injunction · of counsel · escheat · offeree · refoulement · disgorgement · privity · force majeure · deodand

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This word has been looked up 272 times.

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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

rule ·  government ·  policy ·  history ·  science ·  matter ·  measure

Used in the same contextWord Family

law:   laws
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old English lagu, from Old Norse *lagu, variant of lag, that which is laid down; see legh- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. from Middle English lawe, laghe, laʒe lahe, from Anglo-Saxon lagu (rare, the usual words being ǣ, Latin jus, and dōm, Latin decretum, statutum) = Old Saxon lag = Icelandic lög (for *lagu), law (cf, lag, a stratum, order), = Swedish lag = Danish lov, a law (cf. Latin lex (leg-), a law, from the same ult. root); literally ‘that which lies’ or is fixed or set (cf. German gesetz, Anglo-Saxon gesetnes, a law, dōm, a law, doom, Greek θεσμός, law, Latin statutum, a statute, all of similar etymological import), from licgan (preterit læg), lie: see lie.
  2. from Middle English*lawen, lahen, from Anglo-Saxon lagian, make a law, ordain, from lagu, law: see law, n.
 

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