LAVISH, lav'ish, _v.t._ to expend profusely: to waste.--_adj._ bestowing
profusely: prodigal: extravagant: unrestrained.--_adv._ LAV'ISHLY.--_ns._
LAV'ISHMENT, LAV'ISHNESS. [From LAVE (3).]
LAVOLT, la-volt', LAVOLTA, la-vol'ta, _n._ (_Shak._) an old dance in which
there were much turning and high leaping. [It. _la volta_, the turn.]
LAW, law, _n._ a rule of action established by authority: statute: the
rules of a community or state: a rule or principle of science or art: the
whole jurisprudence or the science of law: established usage: that which is
lawful: the whole body of persons connected professionally with the law:
litigation: a theoretical principle educed from practice or observation: a
statement or formula expressing the constant order of certain phenomena:
(_theol._) the Mosaic code or the books containing it.--_v.t._ (_coll._) to
give law to, determine.--_v.i._ (_obs._) to go to law.--_adj._
LAW'-ABID'ING, obedient to the law.--_ns._ LAW-BIND'ING; LAW'-BOOK, a book
treating of law or law cases; LAW'-BREAK'ER, one who violates a law;
LAW'-BURR'OWS (_Scots law_), a writ requiring a person to give security
against doing violence to another; LAW'-CALF, a book-binding in smooth,
pale-brown calf; LAW'-DAY, a day of open court.--_adj._ LAW'FUL, allowed by
law: rightful.--_adv._ LAW'FULLY.--_ns._ LAW'FULNESS; LAW'GIVER, one who
enacts laws: a legislator.--_adj._ LAW'GIVING, legislating.--_n._ LAW'ING,
going to law: litigation: (_obs._) the practice of cutting off the claws
and balls of a dog's forefeet to hinder it from hunting: (_Scot._) a
reckoning at a public-house, a tavern bill.--_adj._ LAW'LESS.--_adv._
LAW'LESSLY.--_ns._ LAW'LESSNESS; LAW'-LIST, an annual publication
containing all information regarding the administration of law and the
legal profession; LAW'-LORD, a peer in parliament who holds or has held
high legal office: in Scotland, a judge of the Court of Session;
LAW'-MAK'ER, a lawgiver; LAW'-MAN, one of a select body with magisterial
powers in some of the Danish towns of early England; LAW'-MER'CHANT, a term
applied to the customs which have grown up among merchants in reference to
mercantile documents and business; LAW'-MONG'ER, a low pettifogging lawyer;
LAW'-ST[=A]'TIONER, a stationer who sells parchment and other articles
needed by lawyers; LAW'SUIT, a suit or process in law; LAW'-WRIT'ER, a
writer on law: a copier or engrosser of legal papers; LAW'YER, a
practitioner in the law: (_N.T._) an interpreter of the Mosaic Law: the
stem of a brier.--LAW LATIN, Latin as used in law and legal documents,
being a mixture of Latin with Old French and Latinised English words; LAW
OF NATIONS, now international law, originally applied to those ethical
principles regarded as obligatory on all communities; LAW OF NATURE (see
NATURE); LAW OF THE LAND, the established law of a country; LAWS OF
ASSOCIATION (see ASSOCIATION); LAWS OF MOTION (see MOTION); LAWFUL DAY, one
on which business may be legally done--not a Sunday or a public
holiday.--BOYLE'S (erroneously called MARIOTTE'S) LAW (_physics_), in
gases, the law that, for a given quantity at a given temperature, the
pressure varies inversely as the volume--discovered by Robert _Boyle_ in
1662, and treated in a book by Mariotte in 1679; BREHON LAW (see BREHON);
CANON LAW (see CANON); CASE LAW, law established by judicial decision in
particular cases, in contradistinction to _statute law_; COMMON LAW (see
COMMON); CRIMINAL LAW, the law which relates to crimes and their
punishment; CROWN LAW, that part of the common law of England which is
applicable to criminal matters; CUSTOMARY LAW (see CONSUETUDINARY);
EMPIRICAL LAW, a law induced from observation or experiment, and though
valid for the particular instances observed, not to be relied on beyond the
conditions on which it rests; FEDERAL LAW, law prescribed by the supreme
power of the United States, as opposed to _state_ law; FOREST LAW, the code
of law which was drawn up to preserve the forests, &c., forming the special
property of the English kings; GRESHAM'S LAW (_polit. econ._), the law 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 (_philol._), the law formulating certain changes
or differences which the mute consonants exhibit in corresponding words in
the Teutonic branches of the Aryan family of languages--stated by Jacob
_Grimm_ (1785-1863); INTERNATIONAL LAW (see INTERNATIONAL); JUDICIARY LAW,
that part of the law which has its source in the decisions and
adjudications of the courts; KEPLER'S LAWS, three laws of planetary motion
discovered by Johann _Kepler_ (1571-1630)--viz. (1) the orbits of the
planets are ellipses with the sun at one focus; (2) the areas described by
their _radii vectores_ in equal times are equal; (3) the squares of their
periodic times vary as the cubes of their mean distances from the sun;
LYNCH LAW (see LYNCH); MAINE LAW, a prohibitory liquor law passed by the
legislature of _Maine_ State, U.S.A., in 1851; MARITIME, MARTIAL,
MERCANTILE, MILITARY LAW (see the _adjs._); MAY LAWS, several Prussian
enactments (1873-74) directed to control the action of the Church, and
limit its interference in civil matters, largely modified in 1887--often
called FALK LAWS, from the introducer; MORAL LAW, that portion of the Old
Testament which relates to moral principles, especially the ten
commandments; MOSAIC, MUNICIPAL, NATURAL LAW (see the _adjs._); OHM'S LAW,
the basis of electrical measurements, established in 1827 by _Ohm_
(1787-1854), that the resistance of a conductor is measured by the ratio of
the electromotive force between its two ends to the current flowing through
it; POOR-LAW, -LAWS, laws providing for the support of paupers at the
public expense; POSITIVE LAW, law owing its force to human sanction as
opposed to divine law; PRIVATE LAW (see PRIVATE); ROMAN LAW, the system of
law developed by the ancient Romans, and often termed the _civil law_
(q.v.); SALIC LAW (see SALIAN); STATUTE LAW (see STATUTE); SUMPTUARY LAW
(see SUMPTUARY); VERNER'S LAW (_philol._), a law stated by Karl _Verner_ in
1875, showing the effect of the position of accent in the shifting of the
original Aryan mute consonants, and _s_, into Low German, and explaining
the most important anomalies in the application of Grimm's law; WRITTEN
LAW, statute law as distinguished from the common law.--HAVE THE LAW OF
(_coll._), to enforce the law against; LAY DOWN THE LAW, to state
authoritatively or dictatorially. [M. E. _lawe_--A.S. _lagu_, from
_licgan_, to lie; Ice. _l[=o]g_.]