Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Law \Law\ (l[add]), n. [OE. lawe, laghe, AS. lagu, from the root
   of E. lie: akin to OS. lag, Icel. l["o]g, Sw. lag, Dan. lov;
   cf. L. lex, E. legal. A law is that which is laid, set, or
   fixed; like statute, fr. L. statuere to make to stand. See
   {Lie} to be prostrate.]
   1. In general, a rule of being or of conduct, established by
      an authority able to enforce its will; a controlling
      regulation; the mode or order according to which an agent
      or a power acts.

   Note: A law may be universal or particular, written or
         unwritten, published or secret. From the nature of the
         highest laws a degree of permanency or stability is
         always implied; but the power which makes a law, or a
         superior power, may annul or change it.

               These are the statutes and judgments and law,
               which the Lord made.               --Lev. xxvi.
                                                  46.

               The law of thy God, and the law of the King.
                                                  --Ezra vii.
                                                  26.

               As if they would confine the Interminable . . .
               Who made our laws to bind us, not himself.
                                                  --Milton.

               His mind his kingdom, and his will his law.
                                                  --Cowper.

   2. In morals: The will of God as the rule for the disposition
      and conduct of all responsible beings toward him and
      toward each other; a rule of living, conformable to
      righteousness; the rule of action as obligatory on the
      conscience or moral nature.

   3. The Jewish or Mosaic code, and that part of Scripture
      where it is written, in distinction from the gospel;
      hence, also, the Old Testament.

            What things soever the law saith, it saith to them
            who are under the law . . . But now the
            righteousness of God without the law is manifested,
            being witnessed by the law and the prophets. --Rom.
                                                  iii. 19, 21.

   4. In human government:
      (a) An organic rule, as a constitution or charter,
          establishing and defining the conditions of the
          existence of a state or other organized community.
      (b) Any edict, decree, order, ordinance, statute,
          resolution, judicial, decision, usage, etc., or
          recognized, and enforced, by the controlling
          authority.

   5. In philosophy and physics: A rule of being, operation, or
      change, so certain and constant that it is conceived of as
      imposed by the will of God or by some controlling
      authority; as, the law of gravitation; the laws of motion;
      the law heredity; the laws of thought; the laws of cause
      and effect; law of self-preservation.

   6. In matematics: The rule according to which anything, as
      the change of value of a variable, or the value of the
      terms of a series, proceeds; mode or order of sequence.

   7. In arts, works, games, etc.: The rules of construction, or
      of procedure, conforming to the conditions of success; a
      principle, maxim; or usage; as, the laws of poetry, of
      architecture, of courtesy, or of whist.

   8. Collectively, the whole body of rules relating to one
      subject, or emanating from one source; -- including
      usually the writings pertaining to them, and judicial
      proceedings under them; as, divine law; English law; Roman
      law; the law of real property; insurance law.

   9. Legal science; jurisprudence; the principles of equity;
      applied justice.

            Reason is the life of the law; nay, the common law
            itself is nothing else but reason.    --Coke.

            Law is beneficence acting by rule.    --Burke.

            And sovereign Law, that state's collected will O'er
            thrones and globes elate, Sits empress, crowning
            good, repressing ill.                 --Sir W.
                                                  Jones.

   10. Trial by the laws of the land; judicial remedy;
       litigation; as, to go law.

             When every case in law is right.     --Shak.

             He found law dear and left it cheap. --Brougham.

   11. An oath, as in the presence of a court. [Obs.] See {Wager
       of law}, under {Wager}.

   {Avogadro's law} (Chem.), a fundamental conception, according
      to which, under similar conditions of temperature and
      pressure, all gases and vapors contain in the same volume
      the same number of ultimate molecules; -- so named after
      Avogadro, an Italian scientist. Sometimes called
      {Amp[`e]re's law}.

   {Bode's law} (Astron.), an approximative empirical expression
      of the distances of the planets from the sun, as follows:
      -- Mer. Ven. Earth. Mars. Aste. Jup. Sat. Uran. Nep. 4 4 4
      4 4 4 4 4 4 0 3 6 12 24 48 96 192 384 -- -- -- -- -- -- --
      --- --- 4 7 10 16 28 52 100 196 388 5.9 7.3 10 15.2 27.4
      52 95.4 192 300 where each distance (line third) is the
      sum of 4 and a multiple of 3 by the series 0, 1, 2, 4, 8,
      etc., the true distances being given in the lower line.

   {Boyle's law} (Physics), an expression of the fact, that when
      an elastic fluid is subjected to compression, and kept at
      a constant temperature, the product of the pressure and
      volume is a constant quantity, i. e., the volume is
      inversely proportioned to the pressure; -- known also as
      {Mariotte's law}, and the {law of Boyle and Mariotte}.

   {Brehon laws}. See under {Brehon}.

   {Canon law}, the body of ecclesiastical law adopted in the
      Christian Church, certain portions of which (for example,
      the law of marriage as existing before the Council of
      Tent) were brought to America by the English colonists as
      part of the common law of the land. --Wharton.

   {Civil law}, a term used by writers to designate Roman law,
      with modifications thereof which have been made in the
      different countries into which that law has been
      introduced. The civil law, instead of the common law,
      prevails in the State of Louisiana. --Wharton.

   {Commercial law}. See {Law merchant} (below).

   {Common law}. See under {Common}.

   {Criminal law}, that branch of jurisprudence which relates to
      crimes.

   {Ecclesiastical law}. See under {Ecclesiastical}.

   {Grimm's law} (Philol.), a statement (propounded by the
      German philologist Jacob Grimm) of certain regular changes
      which the primitive Indo-European mute consonants,
      so-called (most plainly seen in Sanskrit and, with some
      changes, in Greek and Latin), have undergone in the
      Teutonic languages. Examples: Skr. bh[=a]tr, L. frater, E.
      brother, G. bruder; L. tres, E. three, G. drei, Skr. go,
      E. cow, G. kuh; Skr. dh[=a] to put, Gr. ti-qe`-nai, E. do,
      OHG, tuon, G. thun.

   {Kepler's laws} (Astron.), three important laws or
      expressions of the order of the planetary motions,
      discovered by John Kepler. They are these: (1) The orbit
      of a planet with respect to the sun is an ellipse, the sun
      being in one of the foci. (2) The areas swept over by a
      vector drawn from the sun to a planet are proportioned to
      the times of describing them. (3) The squares of the times
      of revolution of two planets are in the ratio of the cubes
      of their mean distances.

   {Law binding}, a plain style of leather binding, used for law
      books; -- called also {law calf}.

   {Law book}, a book containing, or treating of, laws.

   {Law calf}. See {Law binding} (above).

   {Law day}.
       (a) Formerly, a day of holding court, esp. a court-leet.
       (b) The day named in a mortgage for the payment of the
           money to secure which it was given. [U. S.]

   {Law French}, the dialect of Norman, which was used in
      judicial proceedings and law books in England from the
      days of William the Conqueror to the thirty-sixth year of
      Edward III.

   {Law language}, the language used in legal writings and
      forms.

   {Law Latin}. See under {Latin}.

   {Law lords}, peers in the British Parliament who have held
      high judicial office, or have been noted in the legal
      profession.

   {Law merchant}, or {Commercial law}, a system of rules by
      which trade and commerce are regulated; -- deduced from
      the custom of merchants, and regulated by judicial
      decisions, as also by enactments of legislatures.