View synonyms for unwritten law

unwritten law

noun

a law that rests for its authority on custom, judicial decision, etc., as distinguished from law originating in written command, statute, or decree.
the unwritten law, the supposed principle of the right of the individual to avenge wrongs against personal or family honor, especially in cases involving relations between the sexes: sometimes urged in justification of persons guilty of criminal acts of vengeance.

unwritten law

the law based upon custom, usage, and judicial decisions, as distinguished from the enactments of a legislature, orders or decrees in writing, etc
the unwritten law
the unwritten law the tradition that a person may avenge any insult to family integrity, as used to justify criminal acts of vengeance

First recorded in 1635–45

An accepted although informal rule of behavior, as in It's an unwritten law that you lock the gate when you leave the swimming pool . [Mid-1400s]

Both Indians and white men respected the unwritten law which held the theft of food in such a region to be worthy of death.

It is the unwritten law of all our public life, and the same holds true of America, that an honest open scandal ends a career.

The inexorable unwritten law which forbids overt scandal sentenced me.

Even in England, a land where deeds of violence are not condoned by lawless unwritten law, he knew he was in deadly peril.

The common law is the law of England, the unwritten law of England, the lex non scripta.

April 24, 2024gallimaufry

[gal-uh-maw-free ]

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023

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