See Also:

bastard (iou) and law(3) (iou)


bastard (iou)



bastard noun & adjective. . ME.

A. noun.
A person conceived and born out of wedlock; an illegitimate child. ME.
fig.: T. Fuller Fame being a bastard or filia populi, 'tis very hard to find her father.
A sweet Spanish Wine, resembling muscatel; any sweetened Wine. obsolete exc. Hist. LME.
Shakespeare Measure for Measure We shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.
Something of unusual make, shape, or proportion, or of inferior quality; esp. (a) a kind of culverin; (b) a size of paper. L15.
A person of mixed Nama and European ancestry; a Griqua, a Rehobother. S. Afr. L18.
An unpleasant or unfortunate person or thing; (in weakened sense) a chap, a fellow. colloq. M19.
H. G. Wells Serve the cocky little bastard right. T. Rattigan Johnny, you old bastard! Are you all right? J. Maclaren-Ross This bastard of a bump on the back of my head. M. Shadbolt At first Ned and Nick had to milk in the open, which was a bastard when it rained.
Bastarda script. E20.
b. adjective.
Born out of wedlock. ME.
Hybrid; not genuine; spurious, corrupt. LME.
Disraeli That bastard, but picturesque style of architecture, called the Italian Gothic. J. Cheever It was not Italian..it was a bastard language of a little Spanish and a little something that Clementina had never heard before.
Of unusual shape or size (applied e.g. to a file intermediate between coarse and fine, to a font of type, etc.). LME.
Irregular, unauthorized, unrecognized. M16.
Bacon Usurie..is the Bastard use of Money.
Having the appearance of; of an inferior kind; esp. (in names of animals, plants, etc.) closely resembling (the species etc. whose name follows). M16.
bastard balm, bastard pellitory, bastard saffron, bastard toadflax, etc.
R. I. Murchison A bastard limestone charged with encrinites.
Designating, of or pertaining to, a person of mixed Nama and European race. S. Afr. L18.
Bastarda. L19.
Special collocations & comb.: bastard hartebeest = TSESSEBI. bastard mahogany any of several Australian eucalypts, esp. Eucalyptus botryoides. bastard sandalwood = NAIO. bastard title a half-title. bastard-trench verb trans. (Horticulture) dig (ground) by digging over the lower soil with the topsoil temporarily removed. bastard trout US the silver sea trout, Cynoscion nothus. bastard wing Ornithology a group of small quill feathers borne by the first digit of a bird's wing.
bastardism noun = BASTARDY L16-M18.
bastardly adjective = BASTARD adjective M16-L18.

law(3) (iou)



law noun1.
[Old English lagu (pl. laga) from Old Norse pl. of lag something laid down or fixed, ult. from Germanic base of LAY verb1, LIE verb1.]
I. A rule of conduct imposed by secular authority.
(Usu. with the.) The body of rules, whether formally enacted or customary, which a particular State or community recognizes as governing the actions of its subjects or members and which it may enforce by imposing penalties. Orig. also, a code or system of rules of this kind. OE.
Shakespeare Merchant of Venice The Venetian law Cannot impugn you as you do proceed. L. R. Banks Even my dad, that's so strict, breaks the law sometimes.
b. What the law awards; what is due according to the law. LME-L16.
c. Personified as an agent uttering or enforcing the rules of which it consists. Also colloq. (orig. US), a police officer, the police; a sheriff. E16.
Dickens If the law supposes that,..the law is a assa idiot. Times I enquired of the Law where I might cash a cheque. Orlando (Florida) Sentinel The students now know they could get..in trouble with the law.
Any of the body of individual rules in force in a State or community. In early use only in pl., with a collect. sense approaching sense 1. OE.
Shakespeare Henry VIII His faults lie open to the laws; let them, Not you, correct him. R. Campbell A stupid law prevents them entering town in their native garb. J. Rathbone Laws are not for governments, they are for the governed.
a. Laws regarded as obeyed or enforced; controlling influence of laws; a state of respect for or observance of the laws. Freq. in law and order. ME.
V. Seth A nation..In its own birth resisted law. Proverb: Necessity has (or knows) no law.
b. Laws regarded collectively as a social system; rules or injunctions that must be obeyed; something which has the binding force or effect of laws. ME.
Tennyson You knew my word was law, and yet you dared To slight it. G. Orwell His actions are not regulated by law or by any clearly formulated code of behaviour.
c. Laws regarded as a class of objects or as a subject of study; that department of knowledge of which laws are the subject-matter; (sing. & in pl.) jurisprudence. Also (with specifying word), any of the branches into which this collective body may be divided as it affects particular spheres of activity. LME.
J. H. Newman Men learned in the law. W. Cather He was going..to read law in the office of a Swedish lawyer.
a. (Usu. with the.) 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. ME.
Oxford English Dictionary Three of his brothers are in the law.
b. Legal knowledge; legal acquirements. M17.
R. Church Coke thoroughly disliked Bacon. He thought lightly of his law.
The action of the courts, as a means of providing redress of grievances or enforcing claims; judicial remedy; recourse to the courts, litigation. ME.
The statute and common law. Opp. EQUITY 3. L16.
(Predicatively.) A correct decision or opinion on a legal matter; (with good, bad, etc.) a legal judgement considered from the point of view of correctness. M18.
W. Blackstone 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.
II. Chiefly Christian Church. Divine commandments.
The body of commandments considered to express the will of God with regard to the conduct of intelligent creatures, whether revealed in Scripture, innate in the mind, or demonstrable by reason. Also, a particular commandment. Freq. in God's law, law of Nature (cf. sense 15 below), law of reason, etc. OE.
Bible (AV): Psalms 1:2 His delight is in the Law of the Lord.
The system of moral and ceremonial precepts contained in the Pentateuch; the ceremonial portion of the system considered separately. Also (in expressed or implied opposition to the Gospel), the Mosaic dispensation; the system of divine commands and penalties imposed for disobedience contained in the Scriptures. More explicitly the law of Moses, the Mosaic law, etc. OE.
J. Cumming By what he suffered, I escape the law's curse. C. Raphael The sense of purpose which Moses unfolded found form in the 'Law', the Kings and the Prophets.
b. (Law.) The five books of the Pentateuch taken together, in the Jewish Religion constituting the first and most important of the three canonical divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures (the others being the Prophets and the Hagiographa or Writings). LME.
A religious system; a faith or creed. ME-L17.
III. A rule or procedure not derived from an external commanding authority.
Custom, customary rule or usage; habit, practice. Also, a particular (esp. criminal) practice. ME-L16.
What is or is considered right or proper; justice or correctness of conduct. Only in ME.
A rule of action or procedure; any of the rules defining correct procedure in an Art or department of action, social context, or in a game etc. Also, the code or body of rules recognized in a specified department of action etc. ME.
T. Jackson Unto Satan..he did vouchsafe the benefit of the law of Armes or duel. L. Addison Contrary to all..Laws of Hospitality. E. R. Conder A moral law states what ought to be.
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; gen. indulgence, mercy. arch. E17.
G. White When the devoted deer was separated from his companions, they gave him..law..for twenty minutes. George Eliot I will never grant One inch of law to feeble blasphemies.
IV. A regularity in the material world.
A principle deduced from observation, applicable to a defined group or class of phenomena, and generally expressible by the statement that a particular phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions are present; esp. (with specifying word(s)) such a principle formulated in a particular case or associated with a particular discoverer. Also (with ref. to the physical world) law of Nature (cf. sense 8 above). M17.
Bode's law, Grassmann's law, Grimm's law, Kepler's laws, Ohm's law, Stefan-Boltzmann law, Trouton's law, etc.
J. Tyndall As regards the motion of the surface of a glacier, two laws are to be borne in mind. B. Stewart A perfect gas obeys Gay Lussac's law.
b. A (freq. jocular) precept or rule of action, or statement of cause and effect in everyday life. M20.
Murphy's law, Parkinson's law, Sod's law, etc.
New York Times The first law for officeholders is..'Get re-elected.' H. McCloy I call this Julian's Law: a great man's intimates are never as great as he is.
Math. The rule or principle on which a series, or the construction of a curve, etc., depends. E19.
The state of being describable by natural laws; order and regularity in the natural world. M19.
J. B. Mozley In the argument against miracles the first objection is that they are against law.
Phrases etc.: at law according to the laws (sue at law: see SUE 12). bad law: see BAD adjective. be a law unto oneself be guided by one's own sense of what is right; habitually disregard custom or the usual norms. blue laws: see BLUE adjective. both laws Hist. the civil and the canon laws. brother-in-law: see BROTHER noun. canon law: see CANON noun1. case-law: see CASE noun1. civil law: see CIVIL adjective. court of law: see COURT noun1 11. criminal law: see CRIMINAL adjective 2. DAUGHTER-in-law. father-in-law: see FATHER noun. first law of THERMODYNAMICS. give law (to) arch. Exercise undisputed control (over); impose one's will (on). go to law take legal action, make use of the courts of law. have the law on, have the law of take legal action against. international law: see INTERNATIONAL adjective. inverse square law: see INVERSE adjective. law of averages: see AVERAGE noun2 5. law of excluded middle, law of excluded third: see EXCLUDE verb 5. law of GRAVITATION. law of honour: see HONOUR noun. law of nations: see NATION noun1. law of Nature = natural law below. law of parsimony: see PARSIMONY 2b. law of sewers: see SEWER noun1. law of the jungle the supposed code of survival in jungle life; a system in which brute force and self-interest are paramount. law of the land (a) arch. the custom of the country concerned; (b) the laws in force in the country concerned. law of the Medes and Persians [Daniel 6:12] a law, or system of laws, that cannot be altered. lay down the law be dogmatic or authoritarian. limb of the law: see LIMB noun1. lynch law: see LYNCH noun1. man of law: see MAN noun. martial law: see MARTIAL adjective. moral law: see MORAL adjective. mother-in-law: see MOTHER noun1. natural law (a) = sense 8 above; (b) an observable law relating to natural phenomena. new law the Gospel. old law the Mosaic dispensation; the Old Testament. Oral Law: see ORAL adjective. periodic law: see PERIODIC adjective1 2. personal law: see PERSONAL adjective. presumption of law: see PRESUMPTION 2. public law: see PUBLIC adjective & noun. Rejoicing of the Law, Rejoicing over the Law: see REJOICING 1b. Roman law: see ROMAN adjective. rule of law: see RULE noun. Salic law: see SALIC adjective1. second law of THERMODYNAMICS. SERGEANT of law. sister-in-law: see SISTER noun. son-in-law: see SON noun1. square law: see SQUARE adjective. strong arm of the law: see STRONG adjective. take the law into one's own hands seek to redress a grievance by one's own methods, esp. by force. take the law of arch. = have the law on above. third law of THERMODYNAMICS. wage one's law, wage the law: see WAGE verb 3a. wager of law: see WAGER noun 5a.
Comb.: law-abiding adjective obedient to the law; law-abidingness obedience to the law; law agent: see AGENT noun 2; law-book: (a) containing a code of laws; (b) on the subject of law; law-borrow(s), law-burrow(s) Scots Law (a) legal Security required from a person that he or she will not injure the person, family, or property of another; (b) a person standing surety for another; lawbreaker a person who breaks the law; lawbreaking noun & adjective (of, engaged in) breaking the law; law-burrow(s): see law-borrow(s) above; law centre a publicly-funded centre providing legal advice; law-church arch. (derog.) the Established Church; Law Commission a body of legal advisers responsible for systematically reviewing the law of England and Wales or of Scotland and advising on reform; Law Commissioner a member of one of the Law Commissions; lawcourt a court of law; law-day (a) Hist. the day of the meeting of a sheriff's court, court leet, or Other court; (the session of) such a court; (b) Hist. the day appointed for the discharge of a bond; (c) US a day on which educational publicity is given to legal matters in some States; law French the non-standard variety of Norman French used in English law-books from the medieval period to the 18th cent.; lawgiver a person who makes or codifies laws; lawgiving the making or codifying of laws, legislation; law-hand a style of handwriting formerly used for legal documents; law-keeper (a) a guardian of the law; (b) a law-abiding person; law Latin the non-standard Latin of early English statutes; Law Lord (a) any of the members of the House of Lords qualified to take part in its judicial business; (b) colloq. (in Scotland) any of the judges of the Court of Session or High Court of Justiciary who have by courtesy the style of 'Lord'; law-maker = law-giver above; law merchant [medieval Latin lex mercatoria] Hist. the body of rules regulating trade and commerce between different countries; law office N. Amer. a lawyer's office; law-officer a public functionary employed in the administration of the law, or to advise the Government in legal matters; spec. (more fully law-officer of the Crown), in England and Wales either the Attorney-General or the Solicitor-General, in Scotland either the Lord Advocate or the Solicitor-General for Scotland; Law Society a professional body representing solicitors (in the UK and some Commonwealth jurisdictions); law station slang a police station; law stationer a trader who Stocks stationery etc. required by lawyers, formerly often also taking in documents for fair copying or engrossing; lawsuit an action in law; a prosecution of a claim by litigation; law term (a) a word or expression used in law; (b) each of the periods appointed for the sitting of the courts of law.
law-worthy adjective (Hist.) having a standing in the courts of law; within the purview of the law: E19.