Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • See law.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun the first five books of the Old Testament, also called The Law and Torah.

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

  • noun Plural form of law.

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

  • noun the first of three divisions of the Hebrew Scriptures comprising the first five books of the Hebrew Bible considered as a unit

Etymologies

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Examples

  • Frege's main point in all this is that whereas all prescriptive laws can be categorized as ˜laws of thought™ on the basis that they tell what we ought to think, only one kind of descriptive laws deserves to be come under the same heading: the set of psychological descriptive laws (ibid.).

    Psychologism Kusch, Martin 2007

  • You are correct when you say “As the laws of nature are time scale independent , both obey exactly the same laws”.

    Unthreaded #18 « Climate Audit 2007

  • The lower class having become more acquainted with their governing laws, have also become infinitely more obedient to them, and I have observed _that particular care is taken among most of them to explain to each other the nature of the laws_, and to point out in their usual style the ill consequences attending any violation of them.

    The Anti-Slavery Examiner, Omnibus American Anti-Slavery Society

  • The word “Pandects” is a term of great importance in the investigation of the origin of the Roman laws; it points directly and certainly to the fact that the Roman laws, known as the _Pandects_, were gathered from all laws, for such is the import of the term itself when it is associated with the term _laws_.

    The Christian Foundation, Or, Scientific and Religious Journal, March, 1880 Various

  • The difficulty which inheres in this postulate is the unquestioned fact that all motion in nature follows certain immutable _laws_*, [* These laws, so far as known, form the basis of what we call physics and chemistry.] and _the origin of these laws_ is not accounted for by the theory.

    Evolution An Investigation and a Critique Theodore Graebner 1913

  • It carefully abstains from averring in _which_ of "the late proceedings in relation to the public revenue the President has assumed upon himself authority and power not conferred by the Constitution and laws," It carefully abstains from specifying _what laws_ or _what parts_ of the Constitution have been violated.

    A Compilation of the Messages and Papers of the Presidents Volume 3, part 1: Andrew Jackson (Second Term) 1878

  • There is a law above all the laws of men, the authority of which remains for ever unchangeable; and when any _human laws_ are in opposition to the _divine_, it is our duty to obey God rather than man.

    The Ordinance of Covenanting John Cunningham 1856

  • We deem it another radical defect in Mr. Combe's theory of "natural laws," that he represents the _distinct existence and independent action of these laws_ as "the key to the Divine government," as the one principle which explains all apparent irregularities, and accounts satisfactorily for the casualties and calamities of human life.

    Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws James Buchanan 1837

  • And just as the democrat will not admit of a secular constitution which the people could not destroy and which would prevent him from making bad laws; just as the democrat will not submit -- if we may adopt the terminology of Aristotle -- to being governed by _laws_, to be governed that is by an ancient body of law which would check the people and obstruct it in its daily fabrication of _decrees_; so just in the same spirit the democrat does not admit of a God Who has issued His commandments, Who has issued His body of laws, anterior and superior to all the laws and all the decrees of men, and Who sets His limit on the legislative eccentricities of the people, on its capricious omnipotence, in a word, on the sovereignty of the people.

    The Cult of Incompetence ��mile Faguet 1881

  • _secondly_, to reduce these facts under general laws; and, _thirdly_, to investigate the "causes" by which both _facts_ and _laws_ may be accounted for.

    Modern Atheism under its forms of Pantheism, Materialism, Secularism, Development, and Natural Laws James Buchanan 1837

  • Such prohibitions became known as “blue laws,” although no one now remembers why; perhaps because of the color of the paper on which they were printed or bound, or because of the pejorative meaning of the color in the colonial era, as in bluestockings or later variations like bluenoses—those who were prudish or proper.

    The Quiet Revolution of the Sabbath Condé Nast 2023

  • That’s why abortion-rights advocates often describe admitting-privileges laws as “targeted restrictions on abortion providers,” or “TRAP” laws — laws that superficially appear designed to make abortion safer but whose real purpose is to make it harder for abortion clinics to operate.

    The Supreme Court case that could dismantle Roe v. Wade, explained Ian Millhiser 2020

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