Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The condition or quality of being lawless, or of being unrestrained, unauthorized, or uncontrolled by law; want of legality or legitimacy.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun a lack of law and order; anarchy
  • noun defiance of the law; outlawry

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun illegality as a consequence of unlawful acts; defiance of the law
  • noun a state of lawlessness and disorder (usually resulting from a failure of government)

Etymologies

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Examples

  • He says low troop levels early on in the occupation may have contributed to what he called lawlessness in the country.

    CNN Transcript Oct 5, 2004 2004

  • And this time when it went up, the governors of the two states where this happened -- Taraba state (INAUDIBLE) state, separately invited to the military, through me, to take care of what they called the lawlessness of young men who put illegal roadblocks on either side of the state boundary, and if you do not belong to their ethnic group, they take you and kill you.

    CNN Transcript Nov 2, 2001 2001

  • Roman law, flocked into such centres; a tenacious and ambitious race of men issued from among the burgesses, who equally hated the naughtiness of the lords and what they called the lawlessness of the peasants.

    Mutual Aid; a factor of evolution Petr Alekseevich Kropotkin 1881

  • In Mexico, mafia style executions, government corruption, mass murder and outright lawlessness is an out of control problem not seen NOB.

    Drug Wars in Lerdo -- Update 2009

  • In Mexico, mafia style executions, government corruption, mass murder and outright lawlessness is an out of control problem not seen NOB.

    Drug Wars in Lerdo -- Update 2009

  • In Mexico, mafia style executions, government corruption, mass murder and outright lawlessness is an out of control problem not seen NOB.

    Drug Wars in Lerdo -- Update 2009

  • In Mexico, mafia style executions, government corruption, mass murder and outright lawlessness is an out of control problem not seen NOB.

    Drug Wars in Lerdo -- Update 2009

  • In Mexico, mafia style executions, government corruption, mass murder and outright lawlessness is an out of control problem not seen NOB.

    Drug Wars in Lerdo -- Update 2009

  • In Mexico, mafia style executions, government corruption, mass murder and outright lawlessness is an out of control problem not seen NOB.

    Drug Wars in Lerdo -- Update 2009

  • In Mexico, mafia style executions, government corruption, mass murder and outright lawlessness is an out of control problem not seen NOB.

    Drug Wars in Lerdo -- Update 2009

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