Word.ws English Dictionary

hard cases make bad law

hard cases make bad law proverb: an extreme case is a poor basis for a general law that would cover a wider range of less extreme cases.

Proverb

hard cases make bad law

  1. An extreme case is a poor basis for a general law that would cover a wider range of less extreme cases.
  2. A general law is better drafted for the average circumstance.

Questions about hard cases make bad law

What does hard cases make bad law mean?
Hard cases make bad law means an extreme case is a poor basis for a general law that would cover a wider range of less extreme cases.
What part of speech is hard cases make bad law?
Hard cases make bad law is a proverb.

Words near hard cases make bad law in the dictionary

  1. hard c
  2. hard candies
  3. hard candy
  4. hard case
  5. hard cases
  6. hard cases make bad law
  7. hard cash
  8. hard charger
  9. hard chargers
  10. hard cheese
  11. hard cheeses

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: hard cases make bad law (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Flame, not lame-hard cases make bad law.wav.

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