ALL meanings of lay down the law
lay down the law
L l - verbal expression lay down the law enforce rules 1
- noun lay down the law the principles and regulations established in a community by some authority and applicable to its people, whether in the form of legislation or of custom and policies recognized and enforced by judicial decision. 1
- noun lay down the law any written or positive rule or collection of rules prescribed under the authority of the state or nation, as by the people in its constitution. Compare bylaw, statute law. 1
- noun lay down the law the controlling influence of such rules; the condition of society brought about by their observance: maintaining law and order. 1
- noun lay down the law a system or collection of such rules. 1
- noun lay down the law the department of knowledge concerned with these rules; jurisprudence: to study law. 1
- noun lay down the law the body of such rules concerned with a particular subject or derived from a particular source: commercial law. 1
- noun lay down the law an act of the supreme legislative body of a state or nation, as distinguished from the constitution. 1
- noun lay down the law the principles applied in the courts of common law, as distinguished from equity. 1
- noun lay down the law the profession that deals with law and legal procedure: to practice law. 1
- noun lay down the law legal action; litigation: to go to law. 1
- noun lay down the law a person, group, or agency acting officially to enforce the law: The law arrived at the scene soon after the alarm went off. 1
- noun lay down the law any rule or injunction that must be obeyed: Having a nourishing breakfast was an absolute law in our household. 1
- noun lay down the law a rule or principle of proper conduct sanctioned by conscience, concepts of natural justice, or the will of a deity: a moral law. 1
- noun lay down the law a rule or manner of behavior that is instinctive or spontaneous: the law of self-preservation. 1
- noun lay down the law a statement of a relation or sequence of phenomena invariable under the same conditions. a mathematical rule. 1
- noun lay down the law a principle based on the predictable consequences of an act, condition, etc.: the law of supply and demand. 1
- noun lay down the law a rule, principle, or convention regarded as governing the structure or the relationship of an element in the structure of something, as of a language or work of art: the laws of playwriting; the laws of grammar. 1
- noun lay down the law a commandment or a revelation from God. 1
- noun lay down the law (sometimes initial capital letter) a divinely appointed order or system. 1
- noun lay down the law the Law, Law of Moses. 1
- noun lay down the law the preceptive part of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, in contradistinction to its promises: the law of Christ. 1
- noun lay down the law British Sports. an allowance of time or distance given a quarry or competitor in a race, as the head start given a fox before the hounds are set after it. 1
- verb with object lay down the law Chiefly Dialect. to sue or prosecute. 1
- verb with object lay down the law British. (formerly) to expeditate (an animal). 1
- idioms lay down the law be a law to / unto oneself, to follow one's own inclinations, rules of behavior, etc.; act independently or unconventionally, especially without regard for established mores. 1
- idioms lay down the law lay down the law, to state one's views authoritatively. to give a command in an imperious manner: The manager laid down the law to the workers. 1
- idioms lay down the law take the law into one's own hands, to administer justice as one sees fit without recourse to the usual law enforcement or legal processes: The townspeople took the law into their own hands before the sheriff took action. 1
- verb lay down the law To promulgate law. 0
- verb lay down the law (law, dated) To present the law that applies to a given case. 0
- verb lay down the law (Idiomatic) To authoritatively or dogmatically assert what is permitted or not permitted. 0
- noun lay down the law to speak in an authoritative or dogmatic manner 0
- noun lay down the law to give explicit orders in an authoritative manner 0
- noun lay down the law to give a scolding (to) 0