(lô) noun
1. A rule of conduct, recognized by custom or by formal enactment, which a community considers as binding upon its members.
2. A system or body of such rules.
3. The condition of society when such rules are observed: to establish law and order.
4. The body of rules relating to a specified subject: criminal law; statute law.
5. Statute and common law, as opposed to equity.
6. An enactment of a legislature, as opposed to a constitution.
7. Remedial justice as administered by the courts: to resort to the law.
8. The branch of knowledge concerned with jurisprudence: to study law.
9. The vocation of an attorney, solicitor, etc.: to practice law.
10. The legal profession as a whole.
11. The Mosaic system of rules recorded in the Pentateuch.
12. A rule of conduct having divine origin; also such rules, collectively.
13. An imperative rule or command: His word is law.
14. Any rule of conduct or procedure: the laws of hospitality; the laws of poetry.
15. In science and philosophy, a statement of the manner or order in which a defined group of natural phenomena occur under certain conditions: also called law of nature.
16. Math. The rule or formula by which certain functions vary or according to which certain operations are performed.
17. An allowance made or a start given to a competitor in a race or to a hunted animal.
—the law The police, personifying legal force.
—v.t. & v.i. To proceed against (someone) at law.
—adjective Of or pertaining to law or the law. [OE lagu <ON lag something laid or fixed, in pl., law. Akin to LAY¹.] Synonyms (noun): canon, code, command, commandment, decree, edict, enactment, formula, mandate, order, ordinance, principle, regulation, rule, statute. Law in its ideal is the statement of a principle of right in mandatory form, by competent authority, with adequate penalty for disobedience; in common use the term is applied to any legislative act, however imperfect or unjust. Command and commandment are personal and particular; as, the commands of a parent; the Ten Commandments. An edict is the act of an absolute sovereign or other authority; we speak of the edict of an emperor, the decree of a court. A mandate is specific for an occasion or a purpose; a superior court issues its mandate to an inferior court to send up its records (see MANDATE). Statute is the recognized legal term for a specific law; enactment is the more vague and general expression. We speak of algebraic or chemical formulas, municipal ordinances, military orders, army regulations, ecclesiastical canons, the rules of a business house. Law is often used, also, for a recognized principle, whose violation is attended with injury or loss that acts like a penalty; as, the laws of business; the laws of nature. In more strictly scientific use, a natural law is simply a recognized system of sequences or relations; as Kepler's laws of planetary distances. See JUSTICE, LEGISLATION.
—canon law
See CANON LAW.
—ceremonial law
Law pertaining to the religious ceremonies of the Jews, as given in the Old Testament.
—civil law
1. The body or system of jurisprudence which the people of a state or nation establish for their government as citizens.
2. The body of Roman law, received by the governments of continental Europe as the foundation of their jurisprudence; also so received in the State of Louisiana.
—common law
A system of jurisprudence originating in custom or usage, as distinguished from statutory law: the common law of England.
—criminal law
The branch or department of jurisprudence which relates to crimes, their repression and punishment.
—international law
The rules of conduct generally recognized by civilized states as binding them in their conduct toward each other: also LAW OF NATIONS.
—maritime law
The body of principles and usages recognized by commercial nations as just and equitable in regulating affairs on the sea.
—moral law
The divinely prescribed law regarding moral conduct; the law of right; especially, the Decalog.
—Mosaic law
The Law of Moses.
—natural law
1. The rule of civil conduct deducible from the common reason and conscience of mankind: the natural law of self–defense.
2. A law of nature. See LAW (def. 15).
—organic law
The fundamental law of a state; a constitution.
—parliamentary law
The body of rules recognized or ordained for preserving order and regulating the modes of procedure and course of debate in legislative or deliberative bodies.
—Roman Law
See CIVIL LAW.law² (lô) adjective Scot.
Low.law³ (lô) interj.
An exclamation expressing astonishment, admiration, etc. [Fusion of law, var. of LA² and law, alter. of LORD, used as an exclamation]

(lô), (Andrew) Bonar,
1858–1923, English statesman.
—John,
1671–1729, Scottish financier.
—William,
1686–1761, English devotional writer.