Word.ws English Dictionary

have the law of

have the law of verb: to take legal action against someone.

Verb

have the law of (third-person singular simple present has the law of, present participle having the law of, simple past and past participle had the law of)

  1. (colloquial, dated, idiomatic) To take legal action against someone.
    • But those citizens of the Corporation, hungry to have the law of him, saw nothing it may be but a bad example.1902, W. B. Yeats, Freedom of the Theatre
    • It is a kind of lottery, in which every man, staking his own wit or cunning against his neighbour's property, feels that he has little to lose, and much to gain. "I'll have the law of you, so I will!" — is the saying of an Englishman, who expects justice.1800, Maria Edgeworth, Castle Rackrent

Forms of have the law of

third-person singular presenthas the law of
present participlehaving the law of
past participlehad the law of
pasthad the law of

Questions about have the law of

What does have the law of mean?
Have the law of means to take legal action against someone.
What part of speech is have the law of?
Have the law of is a verb.
What is the past tense of have the law of?
The past tense of have the law of is had the law of.

Words near have the law of in the dictionary

  1. have the hang of
  2. have the heart
  3. have the hots for
  4. have the last laugh
  5. have the laugh on one's side
  6. have the law of
  7. have the legs of someone
  8. have the painters in
  9. have the pas of someone
  10. have the pleasure
  11. have the right time

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: have the law of (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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