lawˈman noun

A sheriff or policeman (US; now chiefly archaic or facetious)

lawˈ-man noun (historical)

A member of a select body with magisterial powers in some of the Danish towns of early England

lawˈ-merˈchant noun (obsolete)

The customs that have grown up among merchants in reference to mercantile documents and business, commercial law

lawˈmonger noun

A trivially contentious lawyer

law of averages noun see under average

lawˈ-officer noun

A legal official and adviser of the government, esp an Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, or Lord Advocate

law of nations noun

Now international law (see under international), orig applied to those ethical principles regarded as obligatory on all communities

law of nature noun

1. The invariable order of nature
2. Natural law

law of octaves noun see under octave

law of supply and demand noun

The economic theory that the price of an item at a particular time is determined by conditions of supply and demand

law of the jungle noun

The rules for surviving, succeeding, etc in a competitive or hostile situation by the use of force, etc

law of the land noun

The established law of a country

law of the Medes and Persians noun see under Median

law reports plural noun

Written records of previous case law which are used during court proceedings to make reference to established legal principles

Law Society noun

The solicitors' governing body for England and Wales

laws of motion plural noun see under motion

lawˈ-stāˈtioner noun

A person who sells parchment, documents and other articles needed by lawyers

lawˈsuit noun

A suit or process in law

lawˈ-writer noun

1. A writer on law
2. A copier or engrosser of legal papers

lawyer's wig noun

Another name for shaggy cap (see under shag)

lawyer vine noun

A spiny Australian vine of the palm family

be a law unto oneself or itself

To act in a way that does not follow established rules or conventions

Bode's law (astronomy)

A rule popularized by Johann Bode (1747–1826, German astronomer) but first announced by Johann Titius (1729–96), which states that the distances of the planets from the sun in astronomical units is found by adding 4 to the series 0, 3, 6, 12, 24,… and dividing the number so obtained by 10

Boyle's law (also Mariotte's law)

The law that, for a gas at a given temperature, pressure varies inversely to volume, announced by Robert Boyle in 1662, and confirmed by Mariotte (1620–84, French physicist)

Charles's law

The law that all gases have the same value for the coefficient of expansion at constant pressure, stated by JAC Charles (1746–1823, French physicist), also called Gay-Lussac's law after JL Gay-Lussac (1778–1850, French chemist and physicist)

Dalton's law (chem)

The law that, in a mixture of gases, the pressure exerted by each gas is the same as that which it would exert if it were the only gas present

go to law with

To resort to litigation against

Gresham's law

The law, formulated by Sir Thomas Gresham (1519–79), that of two forms of currency the inferior or more depreciated tends to drive the other from circulation, owing to the hoarding and exportation of the better form

Grimm's law

The law formulating certain changes undergone by Indo-European stopped consonants in Germanic, stated by Jacob Grimm (1785–1863)

have or get the law on (informal) or have the law of (archaic)

To enforce the law against

Hooke's law

The law formulated by Robert Hooke (1635–1703), which states that, for an elastic material within its elastic limit, the extension produced by stretching the material is proportional to the force that is producing the extension

Kepler's laws

1. Three laws of planetary motion discovered by Johann Kepler (1571–1630): (1) the orbits of the planets are ellipses with the sun at one focus
2. (2) the areas described by their radii vectores in equal times are equal
3. (3) the squares of their periodic times vary as the cubes of their mean distances from the sun

lay down the law

To speak authoritatively or dictatorially

Mariotte's law see Boyle's law above.

Moore's law

The law formulated by Gordon Moore (born 1929), which states that the number of transistors that it is possible to fit onto a silicon chip doubles approx every 18 months

Murphy's law (facetious)

The law which states that if anything can go wrong, it will

Parkinson's law see separate entry.

Snell's law

The law of refraction discovered by Willebrord Snel or Snell (1580–1626, Dutch mathematician), which states that the sine of the angle of incidence divided by the sine of the angle of refraction is a constant, known as the refractive index

Sod's law see under sod²

take the law into one's own hands

To obtain justice, or what one considers to be justice, by one's own actions, without recourse to the law, the police, etc

the law (informal)

1. The police
2. A policeman

Verner's law

A law stated by Karl Verner in 1875, showing the effect of accent in the shifting of Indo-European stopped consonants and s in Germanic, and explaining the most important anomalies in the application of Grimm's law