Definition of (a) law in English English dictionary
- -in-law
- Related through marriage
cousin-in-law.
- Black Law
- Any one of a series of laws, passed before the American Civil War, sharply discriminating against free negroes who wished to emigrate to a northern state and become citizens thereof
- Boyle's law
- The observation that the pressure of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to its volume at constant temperature
- Bragg's law
- equates the angle (\theta) between the incident and scattered ray to the spacing (d) between the crystal planes and the wavelength (\lambda) of the radiation - n\lambda=2d\sin(\theta) \
- Charles's law
- the law that the density of an ideal gas is inversely proportional to its temperature at constant pressure
- Coulomb's law
- the fundamental law of electrostatics - the force between two point charges is proportional to the product of their charges, and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them
- Curie's law
- a law which shows that the magnetic susceptibility of a paramagnetic dipole is inversely proportional to the absolute temperature; the basis of operation of magnetic thermometers
- Dalton's law
- when two elements can combine to form more than one compound then the amounts of one which combines with a fixed amount of the other will have a simple multiple relationship
- Dalton's law
- the total pressure of a mixture or gases is the sum of the partial pressures of each gas in the mixture; it is only true for ideal gases
- Descartes law
- Snell's law
- Finagle's law
- An adage which states that if anything can go wrong, then it will at the worst possible moment
- Godwin's law
- The adage that any Usenet discussion will eventually mention the Nazis or Adolf Hitler
- Good Samaritan law
- A law that requires able persons, without putting themselves at risk, to provide reasonable aid to persons who are injured, ill, or otherwise imperiled
- Good Samaritan law
- A law that exempts from legal liability a person who attempts to give reasonable aid to another person who is injured, ill, or otherwise imperiled
- Hooke's law
- the principle that the stress applied to a solid is directly proportional to the strain produced. This law describes the behavior of springs and solids stressed within their elastic limit
- Hubble law
- states that the velocity at which a distant object is receding from the Earth (as measured by its redshift) is proportional to its distance; observational evidence for an expanding universe
- Hubble's law
- alternative spelling of Hubble law
- Jim Crow law
- Nickname for any law which racially segregated public facilities and which was enacted in Southern and border states in the United States between 1876 and 1965
- John Law
- A personification of law enforcement; a police officer
- Joule's law
- the quantitative relationship between the quantity of heat produced in a conductor and the electric current flowing through it
- Kirchhoff's current law
- a law showing that electric charge is conserved around an electrical circuit: - At any point in an electrical circuit where charge density is not changing in time, the sum of currents flowing towards that point is equal to the sum of currents flowing away from that point
- Kirchhoff's voltage law
- a law showing that energy is conserved around an electrical circuit: - The directed sum of the electrical potential differences around a circuit must be zero
- Kirchoff's current law
- Common misspelling of Kirchhoff's current law
- Kirchoff's voltage law
- Common misspelling of Kirchhoff's voltage law
- Law
- a generic term which can refer to the Divine commandments (primarily the Decalogue), the Old Testament in general or, most specifically, the Torah
- Law
- A diminutive of Lawrence
- Law
- A topographic surname, perhaps originally meaning someone who lives near a burial mound
- Law
- A patronymic surname
- Law
- a conical hill
- Law
- the Torah
- Law French
- The body of now archaic legal terms used in the United Kingdom descended from the Anglo-Norman dialect of Old French
- Leibniz's law
- Alternative name of identity of indiscernibles
- Lenz's law
- a law of electromagnetic induction which states that an electromotive force, induced in a conductor, is always in such a direction that the current it would produce would oppose the change which caused it; it is a form of the law of conservation of energy
- Metcalfe's law
- The law that states that the usefulness of a telecommunications network is proportional to the square of the number of its users
- Moore's law
- An empirical observation that the density of transistors on a chip doubles every two years (often misquoted as every 18 months.)
- Murphy's law
- An adage which states that if anything can go wrong, then it will
- Newton's first law
- The observation that objects in motion tend to stay in motion, and objects at rest tend to stay at rest unless an outside force acts upon them
- Newton's second law
- Newton's observation that the rate of change of the momentum of a body is directly proportional to, and in the same direction as, the net force acting on it
- Newton's third law
- Newton's observation that to every action (force applied) there is an equal but opposite reaction (equal force applied in the opposite direction)
- Ohm's law
- Ohm's observation that the direct current flowing in an electrical circuit consisting only of resistances is directly proportional to the voltage applied
- Pascal's law
- The law that states that a confined fluid transmits externally applied pressure uniformly in all directions; the basis of hydraulics
- Peirce's law
- The classically valid but intuitionistically non-valid formula ((P \to Q) \to P) \to P of propositional calculus, which can be used as an substitute for the law of excluded middle in implicational propositional calculus
- Salic law
- A law or rule that excludes women from the line of succession to a throne or other public office
- Snell's law
- the law that, for a ray incident on the interface of two media, the sine of the angle of incidence times the index of the refraction of the first medium is equal to the sine of the angle of refraction times the index of refraction of the second medium
- Sod's law
- the principle that what can go wrong, will go wrong, usually with some observed degree of irony
Its Sod's law that it will rain when going for a picnic.
- Sturgeon's law
- The humorous remark, attributed to science-fiction author Theodore Sturgeon|Theodore Sturgeon]], that "ninety percent of everything is crap"
- above the law
- Exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else
You may think you're above the law, but you're not.
- admiralty law
- : The area of law that deals with ships at sea and the rights of sailors, passengers, and owners of cargo
- against the law
- Illegal, forbidden by law
- as a matter of law
- Legally; according to the law
- black-letter law
- The law as a set of specific concrete rules set down by longstanding precedents
- blue law
- A law that is intended to enforce moral standards
- blue sky law
- : In the United States, a law that regulates the offering and sale of securities to protect the public from fraud, requiring the registration of all securities offerings and sales, as well as of stock brokers and brokerage firms
- break a law
- To violate a law
- brother-in-law
- A male relative of one's generation, separated by one degree of marriage:
- brother-in-law
- Co-brother-in-law: A male relative of one's generation, separated by two degrees of marriage:
- canon law
- A regulation in church law
The canon law on this matter conflicts with several other canon laws.
- canon law
- The law of the church, religious law
Canon law determines who is declared a saint.
- case law
- Law or system of laws established based on judicial precedent rather than on statutory laws created by legislation
- chemical law
- all the laws of nature that are relevant to chemistry
- chthonic law
- A system of law centered on the sacred character of the cosmos
- civil law
- The body of law dealing with the private relations between members of a community; it contrasts with criminal law, military law and ecclesiastical law
- civil law
- Roman law based on the Corpus Juris Civilis; it contrasts with common law
- civil-law
- Attributive form of civil law
civil-law country.
- co-brother-in-law
- one's brother-in-law or sister-in-law's brother; that is, one's sibling's spouse's brother (one's sister's husband's brother or one's brother's wife's brother)
in plural The relationship between men whose brother and sister are married to each other.
- co-brother-in-law
- one's wife's sister's husband; or more generally one's spouse's brother-in-law, the brother of one spouse in relation to the siblings of the other spouse
in plural The relationship between men who marry sisters.
- co-father-in-law
- the father of one's son- or daughter-in-law; that is, the father-in-law of one's son or daughter, or, the father of one spouse in relation to the parents of the other spouse
in plural The relationship between people whose children marry each other; the father of the bride vis-à-vis the father of the groom.
- co-grandfather-in-law
- the grandfather of one's grandson- or granddaughter-in-law; that is, the grandfather of one spouse in relation to the grandparents of the other spouse
in plural The relationship between men whose grandchildren marry each other; the grandfather of the bride vis-à-vis the grandfather of the groom.
- co-in-law
- A distant in-law: A relationship by marriage with a separation by three degrees (two people), compared to prototypical in-laws, where the separation is two/one. The separation may be two degrees of blood kin and one of marriage (addressing the mother of the husband of one's daughter) or one degree blood and two of marriage (addressing the wife of the brother of one's husband)
Depending on context, the term may be understood to mean specifically co-sibling-in-law, or co-parent-in-law.
- co-mother-in-law
- The mother of one's son- or daughter-in-law; that is, the mother-in-law of one's son or daughter, or, the mother of one spouse in relation to the parents of the other spouse
in plural The relationship between women whose children marry each other; the mother of the bride vis-à-vis the mother of the groom.
- co-parents-in-law
- the relationship between people whose children marry each other: the parents of the bride vis-à-vis the parents of the groom. Includes the relationship between maternal and paternal grandparents
- co-parents-in-law
- the parents of one's son- or daughter-in-law, that is, the parents-in-law of one's son or daughter
- co-sibling-in-law
- one's spouse's sibling's spouse
in plural The relationship between people who marry siblings.
- co-sibling-in-law
- one's sibling's spouse's sibling
in plural The relationship between people whose siblings marry each other.
- co-sister-in-law
- one's brother-in-law or sister-in-law's sister; that is, one's sibling's spouse's sister (one's sister's husband's sister or one's brother's wife's sister)
in plural The relationship between women whose brother and sister are married to each other.
- co-sister-in-law
- one's husband's brother's wife; or more generally one's spouse's sister-in-law, the sister of one spouse in relation to the siblings of the other spouse
in plural The relationship between women who marry brothers.
- combined gas law
- a combination of Boyle's law and Charles's law which states that the product of the volume and pressure of an ideal gas divided by its temperature is constant
- common law
- one of two legal systems in England and in the United States before 1938 (the other being "equity")
- common law
- Law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals (also called case law), as distinguished from legislative statutes or regulations promulgated by the executive branch
- common law
- typically in the phrase "common law system" -- a legal system that gives great precedential weight to common law (in sense 1), as opposed to a civil law, Islamic law, and Soviet law systems
- common law
- typically in the phrase "common law jurisdiction" -- a jurisdiction that uses a common law system (in sense 2), United Kingdom and most of its former colonies and possessions, including the United States
- common-law
- Relating to common-law marriage
- common-law
- Of or pertaining to common law
- common-law marriage
- A marriage based on the duration of cohabitation rather than formal ceremony
- conservation law
- Any of several laws that hold that some physical property remains constant in a closed system regardless of other changes that take place
- conservation-law
- Attributive form of conservation law, noun
- constitutional law
- The area of law which deals with the interpretation and application of a constitution, particularly that of a national government
- constitutional-law
- Attributive form of constitutional law
constitutional-law professor.
- court of law
- A court which was empowered to decide questions of law and award monetary damages, but could not provide equitable relief, which was reserved for a court of equity
- court of law
- A court presided over by a judge which is empowered to decide all aspects of legal disputes
- courts of law
- plural form of court of law
- cousin-in-law
- Brother of one's cousin's husband
- cousin-in-law
- Sister of one's cousin's husband
- cousin-in-law
- Cousin of one's husband
- cousin-in-law
- Cousin of one's wife
- cousin-in-law
- Wife of one's cousin
- cousin-in-law
- Husband of the cousin of one's wife
- cousin-in-law
- Wife of the cousin of one's husband
- cousin-in-law
- Wife of the cousin of one's wife
- cousin-in-law
- Husband of the cousin of one's husband
- cousin-in-law
- Husband of one's cousin
- criminal law
- The area of law pertaining to crime and punishment
- criminal-law
- Attributive form of criminal law
criminal-law professor.
- divine law
- Divine law is any law (or rule) that in the opinion of believers, comes directly from the will of God (or a god)
- due process of law
- due process
- father-in-law
- One's spouse's father
- feudal law
- A feudal law
- feudal law
- The legislation governing feudal matters, such as the procedures, (mutual) rights and duties concerning fiefs, feudal lords and their enfeoffed vassals
- grandfather-in-law
- A grandfather of one's spouse
- grandmother-in-law
- A grandmother of one's spouse
- half brother-in-law
- The husband of one's half-sister
- half brother-in-law
- The husband of the half-sister of one's spouse
- half brother-in-law
- The half brother of one's spouse
- half sister-in-law
- The wife of one's half-brother
- half sister-in-law
- The wife of the half-brother of one's spouse
- half sister-in-law
- The half sister of one's spouse
- husband-in-law
- A husband who provides legally required support, but not love or affection
- husband-in-law
- Another husband of one's wife. Typically used in cases of divorce and subsequent remarriage
- husband-in-law
- A husband in law only, such as one who has abandoned his wife
- ideal gas law
- the equation of state of an ideal gas - PV = nRT
- in-law
- Sometimes specifically a parent-in-law of one's child, for which the dedicated terms co-mother-in-law, co-father-in-law are rare
- in-law
- A relative by marriage (or through affinity). Affinal relative; affine
- international law
- Law which addresses the question of which legal jurisdiction cases may be heard in
- international law
- Law covering situations where the laws of nation states are held inapplicable when conflicting with a supranational legal system
- international law
- Law which involves, for instance, the United Nations, maritime law, international criminal law and the Geneva Convention
- international law
- The term commonly used for referring to the system of implicit and explicit agreements that bind together nations
- inverse-square law
- any physical law, such as that of gravitation, in which a quantity varies inversely with distance from a source as the square of that distance
- law
- A written or understood rule that concerns behaviours and the appropriate consequences thereof. Laws are usually associated with mores
Do unto others as you wish them to do unto you is a good law to follow.
- law
- A one-sided contract
- law
- A particular such rule
A new law forbids driving on that road.
- law
- A category of English "common law" petitions that request monetary relief, as opposed to relief in forms other than a monetary judgment; compare to "equity"
- law
- A well-established, observed physical characteristic or behavior of nature
Newton and Einstein understood the law of gravitation in very different ways.
- law
- a hill
You might climb the Law and behold the face of many counties. (Robert Louis Stevenson Across the Plains, 1892).
- law
- The body of rules and standards issued by a government, or to be applied by courts and similar authorities
By law, one is not allowed to own a wallaby in New York City.
- law
- One of the official rules of cricket as codified by the MCC
- law
- a tumulus of stones
- law
- The police
Here comes the law — run!.
- law
- A statement that is true under specified conditions
- law Latin
- Barbarous Latin. (1811 Dictionary of Vulgar Tongue)
- law and order
- The principles under which the world and its components operate
- law and order
- The enforcement of law, statutes, and social conventions
- law clerk
- a clerk who assists a judge with legal proceedings. Depending on the court, such positions may be professional careers or may be temporary positions for graduating law students
- law enforcement
- The various government agencies involved in the prevention of crime and the apprehension of criminals
- law of Hobson-Jobson
- The rule that words or phrases borrowed between languages will be modified in their pronunciation as necessary to conform to the set of sounds used by the borrowing language
Tommy-axe. A corruption of tomahawk: an instance of the law of Hobson-Jobson (q.v.).
- law of averages
- The statistical tendency toward a fixed proportion in the results when an experiment is repeated a large number of times; the law of large numbers
It is upon the ideas of 'repeated experimentation' and the law of averages that many of our notions of chance are founded.
- law of averages
- An imaginary or perceived "law" of probabilities which is wrongly used to predict results in the short-term
This coin has landed on heads ten times, so by the law of averages it must land on tails next time.
- law of conservation of energy
- The law stating that the total amount of energy in any isolated system remains constant, and cannot be created or destroyed, although it may change forms
- law of diminishing marginal utility
- In economics, the theory there is a general decrease in the utility of a product, as more units of it are consumed
- law of diminishing returns
- The tendency for a continuing effort toward a particular goal to decline in effectiveness after a certain amount of success has been achieved
- law of diminishing returns
- A relationship between input and output, such that adding units of any one input (labour, capital etc.) to fixed amounts of the others will yield successively smaller increments of output
- law of double negation
- The statement that the negation of the negation of A implies A, for any proposition A. Stated symbolically: \neg \neg A \to A
- law of excluded middle
- An axiom of classical logic which states that, given a proposition P, either P is true or P is false, i.e. in symbols: P \vee \neg P . This law is rejected by intuitionistic logic
- law of large numbers
- The statistical tendency toward a fixed ratio in the results when an experiment is repeated a large number of times; law of averages
- law of the excluded middle
- Alternative form of law of excluded middle
- law of the jungle
- The survival of the fittest, strongest or most cunning
- law of the tongue
- An implicit agreement between whalers of Eden, Australia, and local orcas, in which the orcas would invite whalers on a whale hunt, in exchange for dibs on the catch, primarily the whale's tongue
- law of the tongue
- Appropriate control of one's words
- law of unintended consequences
- That every act has unintended consequences
- law review
- : The student organization responsible for publishing such a scholarly journal
Students compete in various ways to be able to join the law review.
- law review
- : A scholarly journal focusing on legal issues, normally published by an organization of students at a law school or through a bar association
- law review
- : An article published in such a journal
Joe has an excellent publication record - he has two books, a law review, and a regular magazine article under his belt.
- law reviews
- plural form of law review
- law school
- a post-graduate academic program in which students are prepared for the practice of law
- law school
- a building which houses such an academic program
- law schools
- plural form of law school
- law student
- a student who studies the law. Someone enrolled in a school for legal education
- law-abiding
- Describing one who obeys laws. Not a lawbreaker
The law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear from government surveillance...unless the government begins to break the law.
- lay down the law
- To authoritatively or dogmatically assert what is permitted or not permitted
- lay down the law
- To promulgate law
- lay down the law
- To present the law that applies to a given case
- lemon law
- A law dealing with defective items, especially automobiles, and consumers' rights
You should consult the applicable lemon laws and see if you have grounds for a return or replacement.
- letter of the law
- The strict interpretation of the law or rules
- long arm of the law
- The influence or effectiveness of law enforcement institutions; law enforcement officers collectively
Repeat violent offenders will hopscotch over state lines to avoid the long arm of the law, said Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley.
- ma-in-law
- mother-in-law
- maritime law
- The body of law concerning international trade on the high seas
- martial law
- Rules by military authorities, especially when imposed on a civilian population in time of war or other crisis, or in an occupied territory
- mother-in-law
- One’s spouse’s mother
- mother-in-law
- A mother-in-law apartment
- mother-in-law apartment
- A small apartment attached to or carved out of a nominally single-family house, ostensibly intended for occupancy by a mother-in-law or other relative, but potentially also rented out to a stranger
- mother-in-law style
- Linguistic or anthropological term for the style of speech and manners which are to be observed between an Australian aboriginal man and his mother-in-law (ie. wife's mother). Depending on the particular people this can go so as far as an entirely separate vocabulary of words. (Reference: Macquarie Aboriginal Words, Macquarie University, 1994, paperback ISBN 0-949757-79-9, introduction.)
- natural law
- An ethical theory that posits the existence of a law whose content is set by nature and that therefore has validity everywhere
- nephew-in-law
- Rare. wife of someone's nephew. (Usually called a nephew)
- nephew-in-law
- Son-in-law of someone's brother-in-law
- nephew-in-law
- Son-in-law of someone's sister-in-law
- nephew-in-law
- Son-in-law of someone's brother. (fraternal nephew-in-law)
- niece-in-law
- Daughter-in-law of someone's brother-in-law
- niece-in-law
- Daughter-in-law of someone's sister-in-law
- niece-in-law
- Niece of someone's wife. (Usually called a niece.)
- niece-in-law
- Niece of someone's husband. (Usually called a niece.)
- niece-in-law
- Daughter-in-law of someone's sister
- niece-in-law
- Daughter-in-law of someone's brother
- one's word is law
- Requests or orders of (a person) should definitely be fulfilled
- operation of law
- An application of a legal rule that automatically brings about a legal consequence
- organic law
- A law or system of laws which forms the foundation of a government, corporation or other organization's body of rules. A constitution is a particular form of organic law for a sovereign state
- parent-in-law
- A mother-in-law or father-in-law
- periodic law
- The principle that chemical properties of the elements are periodic functions of their atomic numbers
- physical law
- A universal statement about both nature and society, based on empirical observations of physical behavior, tested using scientific method
- positive law
- Law explicitly made, as compared to natural law, prescribed by express enactment or institution
a. 1862, John Codman Hurd, The Law Of Freedom And Bondage In The United States, page 576:But the same term, positive law, is also very often used to designate statute law or positive legislation, as distinguished from customary or unwritten law derived by the judicial application of natural reason.
- possession is nine points of the law
- Alternative form of possession is nine-tenths of the law
- possession is nine-tenths of the law
- One who has possession of a thing has some right to it; a popular statement of the doctrine of adverse possession
- power law
- Any of many mathematical relationships in which something is related to something else by an equation of the form f(x) = a.xk
- private law
- A category of law governing the relationship among persons (citizens or legal persons including corporations), as opposed to relations between the state and persons. Major subdivisions of private law include (depending on whether the jurisdiction belongs to the civil law, common law, or other legal tradition) torts and contracts or the law of obligations as well as property law, family law, commercial law, and the law of succession (probate and estates). It encompasses most areas of law considered civil law (i.e., non-criminal law), such as those governed by a civil code (in a civil-law or continental-traditional legal system)
- procedural law
- The law that comprises the rule by which a court hears and determines what happens in civil or criminal proceedings
- property law
- The formal course in property law required of most first-year law school students in common-law systems
- property law
- the area of law concerned with the ownership and conveyance of property rights and title
- public law
- A category of law governing the relationship between the state on one hand and persons (citizens or legal persons including corporations) on the other. Constitutional law, administrative law and criminal law are some of the major subdivisions of public law
- public-law
- Attributive form of public law
public-law expert.
- red letter law
- A law that is a large scale attempt by a government to regulate business in the interest of society at large
- retroactive law
- any law that makes a prior legal act illegal, or increases the penalty for a prior illegal act
- rule of law
- the doctrine that no individual is above the law and that everyone must answer to it
- sign into law
- To sign legislation as a mark of official approval
- sister-in-law
- Co-sister-in-law: The wife of one's sibling-in-law
- sister-in-law
- A female relative of one's generation, separated by one degree of marriage:
- son-in-law egg
- A boiled egg that has been shelled and then deep-fried
- son-in-law eggs
- plural form of son-in-law egg
- spirit of the law
- The interpretation of the law towards the end of providing justice, even if this interpretation does not fall within the law as written
- statute law
- Any law enacted by a legislative body
- stepfather-in-law
- A stepfather of one's spouse
- substantive law
- The statutory or written law that governs rights and obligations of those who are subject to it
- sunshine law
- A law (rule enacted by a legislature or the like) that allows the general public greater knowledge of the actions of a government