[law] 
| 1. | the principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognized and enforced by judicial decision. |
| 2. | any written or positive rule or collection of rules prescribed under the authority of the state or nation, as by the people in its constitution. Compare bylaw, statute law. |
| 3. | the controlling influence of such rules; the condition of society brought about by their observance: maintaining law and order. |
| 4. | a system or collection of such rules. |
| 5. | the department of knowledge concerned with these rules; jurisprudence: to study law. |
| 6. | the body of such rules concerned with a particular subject or derived from a particular source: commercial law. |
| 7. | an act of the supreme legislative body of a state or nation, as distinguished from the constitution. |
| 8. | the principles applied in the courts of common law, as distinguished from equity. |
| 9. | the profession that deals with law and legal procedure: to practice law. |
| 10. | legal action; litigation: to go to law. |
| 11. | a person, group, or agency acting officially to enforce the law: The law arrived at the scene soon after the alarm went off. |
| 12. | any rule or injunction that must be obeyed: Having a nourishing breakfast was an absolute law in our household. |
| 13. | a rule or principle of proper conduct sanctioned by conscience, concepts of natural justice, or the will of a deity: a moral law. |
| 14. | a rule or manner of behavior that is instinctive or spontaneous: the law of self-preservation. |
| 15. | (in philosophy, science, etc.)
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| 16. | a principle based on the predictable consequences of an act, condition, etc.: the law of supply and demand. |
| 17. | a rule, principle, or convention regarded as governing the structure or the relationship of an element in the structure of something, as of a language or work of art: the laws of playwriting; the laws of grammar. |
| 18. | a commandment or a revelation from God. |
| 19. | (sometimes initial capital letter ) a divinely appointed order or system. |
| 20. | the Law. Law of Moses. |
| 21. | the preceptive part of the Bible, esp. of the New Testament, in contradistinction to its promises: the law of Christ. |
| 22. | British Sports. an allowance of time or distance given a quarry or competitor in a race, as the head start given a fox before the hounds are set after it. |
| 23. | Chiefly Dialect. to sue or prosecute. |
| 24. | British. (formerly) to expeditate (an animal). |
| 25. | be a law to or unto oneself, to follow one's own inclinations, rules of behavior, etc.; act independently or unconventionally, esp. without regard for established mores. |
| 26. | lay down the law,
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| 27. | take the law into one's own hands, to administer justice as one sees fit without recourse to the usual law enforcement or legal processes: The townspeople took the law into their own hands before the sheriff took action. |
[law] | (used as an exclamation expressing astonishment.) |
[law] | 1. | Andrew Bon⋅ar [bon-er] , 1858–1923, English statesman, born in Canada: prime minister 1922–23. |
| 2. | John, 1671–1729, Scottish financier. |
| 3. | William, 1686–1761, English clergyman and devotional writer. |
| law (lô) n.
To go to law; litigate. [Middle English, from Old English lagu, from Old Norse *lagu, variant of lag, that which is laid down; see legh- in Indo-European roots.] |
| Law, (Andrew) Canadian-born British politician who served as Chancellor of the Exchequer (1916-1918) and prime minister (1922-1923). |
| Law, John 1671-1729. Scottish financier active in France, where he engaged in highly profitable speculation on the development of Louisiana. The investment scheme ultimately collapsed, and he fled the country in ruin (1720). |
law (lô)
n.
A rule of conduct or procedure established by custom, agreement, or authority.
A set of rules or principles for a specific area of a legal system.
A piece of enacted legislation.
A formulation describing a relationship observed to be invariable between or among phenomena for all cases in which the specified conditions are met.
A generalization based on consistent experience or results.
law
software law
Law
a rule of action. (1.) The Law of Nature is the will of God as to human conduct, founded on the moral difference of things, and discoverable by natural light (Rom. 1:20; 2:14, 15). This law binds all men at all times. It is generally designated by the term conscience, or the capacity of being influenced by the moral relations of things. (2.) The Ceremonial Law prescribes under the Old Testament the rites and ceremonies of worship. This law was obligatory only till Christ, of whom these rites were typical, had finished his work (Heb. 7:9, 11; 10:1; Eph. 2:16). It was fulfilled rather than abrogated by the gospel. (3.) The Judicial Law, the law which directed the civil policy of the Hebrew nation. (4.) The Moral Law is the revealed will of God as to human conduct, binding on all men to the end of time. It was promulgated at Sinai. It is perfect (Ps. 19:7), perpetual (Matt. 5:17, 18), holy (Rom. 7:12), good, spiritual (14), and exceeding broad (Ps. 119:96). Although binding on all, we are not under it as a covenant of works (Gal. 3:17). (See COMMANDMENTS.) (5.) Positive Laws are precepts founded only on the will of God. They are right because God commands them. (6.) Moral positive laws are commanded by God because they are right.
law
In addition to the idioms beginning with law, also see above suspicion (the law); lay down the law; letter of the law; long arm of the law; Murphy's law; possession is nine points of the law; take the law into one's hands; unwritten law.