ALL meanings of take the law into one's hands
law
T t - noun take the law into one's hands 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 take the law into one's hands 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 take the law into one's hands the controlling influence of such rules; the condition of society brought about by their observance: maintaining law and order. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands a system or collection of such rules. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands the department of knowledge concerned with these rules; jurisprudence: to study law. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands the body of such rules concerned with a particular subject or derived from a particular source: commercial law. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands an act of the supreme legislative body of a state or nation, as distinguished from the constitution. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands the principles applied in the courts of common law, as distinguished from equity. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands the profession that deals with law and legal procedure: to practice law. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands legal action; litigation: to go to law. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands 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 take the law into one's hands any rule or injunction that must be obeyed: Having a nourishing breakfast was an absolute law in our household. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands 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 take the law into one's hands a rule or manner of behavior that is instinctive or spontaneous: the law of self-preservation. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands a statement of a relation or sequence of phenomena invariable under the same conditions. a mathematical rule. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands a principle based on the predictable consequences of an act, condition, etc.: the law of supply and demand. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands 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 take the law into one's hands a commandment or a revelation from God. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands (sometimes initial capital letter) a divinely appointed order or system. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands the Law, Law of Moses. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands the preceptive part of the Bible, especially of the New Testament, in contradistinction to its promises: the law of Christ. 1
- noun take the law into one's hands 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 take the law into one's hands Chiefly Dialect. to sue or prosecute. 1
- verb with object take the law into one's hands British. (formerly) to expeditate (an animal). 1
- idioms take the law into one's hands 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 take the law into one's hands 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 take the law into one's hands 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