| 释义 |
lawless, a.|ˈlɔːlɪs|
[f. law n.1 + -less.]
1. a. Without law, having no laws; ignorant of, or not regulated by law. Of a law: Not based on principles of right. Now rare.
a1200Moral Ode 291 Þer buð þo heþenemen, þe were lawelese [v.r. laȝe-lease]. a1327Pol. Songs (Camden) 254 For miht is riht, the lond is laweles. 1340–70Alex. & Dind. 906 For as bestes ȝe ben by no skile reuled,..So be ȝe, ludus, by-lad & lawe-les alse. 1470–85Malory Arthur i. xix, Ther was oomen in to their landes people that were laules. 1598Hakluyt Voy. I. 20 A barbarous and inhumane people whose law is lawlesse. a1656Bp. Hall Sp. Defence Convocation, Shall the enemies of the Church..say we are a lawless Church? 1789Belsham Ess. I. 4 If the determinations of the will are themselves lawless and uncertain. 1812Byron Ch. Har. ii. xlvii, Albania's chief, whose dread command Is lawless law. 1836W. Irving Astoria III. 254 Commercial feuds in the lawless depths of the wilderness. 1956E. H. Hutten Lang. Mod. Physics vi. 215 This confusion has prompted the view that chance events are lawless.
b. Exempt from law, not within the province of law, above or beyond the reach of law. † Also, in the position of an outlaw.
c1250Bracton De Legibus iii. tract. ii. xi. §1 & extunc utlagabitur, sicut ille qui est extra legem, sicut Laughelesman [v.r. Laghelesman]. 1602How to choose good wife H 4, I haue procur'd a licence, and this night We will be married in a lawlesse Church. 1632Massinger City Madam v. ii, You shall find you are not lawless, and that your moneys Cannot justify your villanies. 1656S. H. Gold. Law 49 He is not bound to it, for the Lord of the Law is Lawless. 1685Baxter Paraphr. N.T. Matt. xii. 37 Christ hath not made us lawless..in vain. 1865Mozley Mirac. vi. 117 Such an anomalous occurrence would be lawless, and a contradiction to known law.
2. a. Of persons, their actions: Regardless of, or disobedient to law. † Occas. of an action: Illegal, unlawful (obs.). Of passions, etc.: Uncontrolled by law, unbridled, licentious.
a1300Cursor M. 7304 (Gött.) For nouþer er ȝe war ne wise, Bot for ȝour riches ouer lawe-lis. 13..E.E. Allit. P. C. 170, I leue here be sum losynger, sum lawles wrech. c1394P. Pl. Crede 609 It is a laweles lijf as lordynges vsen. 14..Siege Jerusalem 25/496 Lat neuer þis lawles ledis lauȝ at his harmys. 1576Fleming Panopl. Epist. 36 Great is the lawlesse laying on of the sword and warlike weapon. 1588Shakes. Tit. A. i. i. 312 A Valliant sonne in-law thou shalt enioy: One, fit to bandy with thy lawlesse Sonnes. 1591― Two Gent. iv. i. 54 That they may hold excus'd our lawlesse liues. 1594― Rich. III, i. iv. 224 He needs no indirect or lawlesse course, To cut off those that haue offended him. 1604Dekker Honest Wh. Wks. 1873 II. 133 Lawlesse desires are seas scorning all bounds. 1642Fuller Holy & Prof. St. v. xiv. 411 At the Innes of Court under pretence to learn Law, he learns to be lawlesse. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 637 Wine urg'd to lawless Lust the Centaurs Train. a1704T. Brown Sat. Woman Wks. 1730 I. 56 Revenge implacable, and lawless fires. 1812Crabbe Tales 3 Beneath him fix'd, our man of law, That lawless man the foe of order, saw. 1846Keble Lyra Innoc. (1873) 40 Shaming lawless mirth. 1855Macaulay Hist. Eng. xiii. III. 326 He should be protected against lawless violence. 1888M. Morris Claverhouse x. 183 Among these lawless spirits, he who would be obeyed must be feared.
absol.1557N. T. (Genev.) 1 Tim. i. 9 The Lawe is..geuen..vnto the lawles. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 137, I have said that to withstand the arguments of the lawless, the Anti-jacobins proposed to suspend the law.
b. said of animals and inanimate objects.
1738Wesley Psalms lxxxix. vi, Thou dost the lawless Sea controul. 1781Gibbon Decl. & F. lxxi. III. 803 The lawless river overturned the palaces..on its banks. 1854Badham Halieut. 154 A prison for wild lawless birds.
Hence ˈlawlessly adv., in a lawless manner.
1591Shakes. Two Gent. v. iii. 14 He..will not vse a woman lawlesly. a1656Bp. Hall Imposition Hands §14 Wks. 1808 IX. 808 How lawlessly vicious are the lives of too many. 1972Daily Tel. 4 Aug. 2/8 The council is insistent that it is not behaving lawlessly. |