Word.ws English Dictionary

in the name of the law

in the name of the law prepositional phrase: by the demand of a legal authority.

Prepositional phrase

  1. By the demand of a legal authority.
    • The following passage from his autobiography is interesting, as showing the impression which the "barbarous deeds done in the name of the law" made upon his mind, even in boyhood: […]1850, George Searle Phillips, The Life, Character and Genius of Ebenezer Elliot the Corn Law Rhymer, page 78
    • Shouting "stop in the name of the law" is wasteful when a suspect obviously is fleeing the law.1991 July, Francis A. Gilligan, Stephen D. Smith, “Criminal Law Division Notes”, in The Army Lawyer, page 52

Questions about in the name of the law

What does in the name of the law mean?
In the name of the law means by the demand of a legal authority.
What part of speech is in the name of the law?
In the name of the law is a prepositional phrase.

Words near in the name of the law in the dictionary

  1. in the money
  2. in the mood
  3. in the name of
  4. in the name of all that is holy
  5. in the name of heaven
  6. in the name of the law
  7. in the nature of things
  8. in the near future
  9. in the neighborhood of
  10. in the neighbourhood of
  11. in the nick

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: in the name of the 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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