blue law


noun
  1. any puritanical law that forbids certain practices, especially drinking or working on Sunday, dancing, etc.

Origin of blue law

1
An Americanism dating back to 1775–85

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use blue law in a sentence

  • These Blue Laws, as they were called, aimed at establishing an almost theocratic form of government.

  • These agents should be licensed by the State as the “Blue Laws” require the licensing of stock salesmen.

    The Modern Ku Klux Klan | Henry Peck Fry
  • The old blue laws were stringently enforced, and the penalty for infringement was usually a sharp one.

    Greenwich Village | Anna Alice Chapin
  • There is at the present time a strong and perhaps growing tendency towards enacting Sunday Blue Laws.

  • I spent the first years of my life under the influence of what history has called the "Blue Laws" of Connecticut.

    Leaves from My Journal | Wilford Woodruff