Part 614

2. Constituted or authorized by law; rightful; as, the lawful owner of lands.

Lawful age, the age when the law recognizes one's right of independent action; majority; -- generally the age of twenty-one years.

In some of the States, and for some purposes, a woman attains lawful age at eighteen. Abbott.

Syn. -- Legal; constitutional; allowable; regular; rightful. -- Lawful, Legal. Lawful means conformable to the principle, spirit, or essence of the law, and is applicable to moral as well as juridical law. Legal means conformable to the letter or rules of the law as it is administered in the courts; conformable to juridical law. Legal is often used as antithetical to equitable, but lawful is seldom used in that sense.

-- Law"ful*ly, adv. -- Law"ful*ness, n.

Law"giv`er (?), n. One who makes or enacts a law or system of laws; a legislator.

Law"giv`ing, a. Enacting laws; legislative.

Law"ing, n. Going to law; litigation. Holinshed.

Law"ing, n. [So called because done in compliance with an English forest law.] Expeditation. Blackstone.

Law"less, a. 1. Contrary to, or unauthorized by, law; illegal; as, a lawless claim.

He needs no indirect nor lawless course.

Shak.

2. Not subject to, or restrained by, the law of morality or of society; as, lawless men or behavior.

3. Not subject to the laws of nature; uncontrolled.

Or, meteorlike, flame lawless through the void.

Pope.

-- Law"less*ly, adv. -- Law"less*ness, n.

Law"mak`er (?), n. A legislator; a lawgiver.

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Law"mak`ing (l"m`kng), a. Enacting laws; legislative. -- n. The enacting of laws; legislation.

Law"mon`ger (?), n. A trader in law; one who practices law as if it were a trade. Milton.

Lawn (ln), n. [OE. laund, launde, F. lande heath, moor; of Celtic origin; cf. W. llan an open, clear place, llawnt a smooth rising hill, lawn, Armor. lann or lan territory, country, lann a prickly plant, pl. lannou heath, moor.] 1. An open space between woods. Milton.

"Orchard lawns and bowery hollows."

Tennyson.

2. Ground (generally in front of or around a house) covered with grass kept closely mown.

Lawn mower, a machine for clipping the short grass of lawns. -- Lawn tennis, a variety of the game of tennis, played in the open air, sometimes upon a lawn, instead of in a tennis court. See Tennis.

Lawn, n. [Earlier laune lynen, i. e., lawn linen; prob. from the town Laon in France.] A very fine linen (or sometimes cotton) fabric with a rather open texture. Lawn is used for the sleeves of a bishop's official dress in the English Church, and, figuratively, stands for the office itself.

A saint in crape is twice a saint in lawn.