Word.ws English Dictionary

law of the land

law of the land noun: a particular law or the complete set of laws currently in effect within a jurisdiction, especially with emphasis on the official and authoritative nature of such law.

Noun

law of the land

  1. A particular law or the complete set of laws currently in effect within a jurisdiction, especially with emphasis on the official and authoritative nature of such law.
    • Besides it must be remembered that precedents in some cases will not excuse a judge, even where they are according to the undoubted law of the land.1724, The Drapier's Letters, Jonathan Swift, Appendix 4
    • Hackney-coaches are part and parcel of the law of the land; they were settled by the Legislature; plated and numbered by the wisdom of Parliament.1836, “Boz” [pseudonym; Charles Dickens], “chapter-7”, in Sketches by “Boz,” Illustrative of Every-day Life, and Every-day People. […], volume (please specify |volume=I or II), London: John Macrone...

law of the land meaning in Kannada

law of the land in Kannada

ದೇಶದ ನ್ಯಾಯಸೂತ್ರಗಳು, ದೇಶಧರ್ಮ

Examples of law of the land in a sentence

  • He confessed that neither he nor any citizen had a right to consult his own feelings or conscience in a case where a law of the land had been violated before his own eyes.1873, Mark Twain, Charles Dudley Warner, chapter 29, in The Gilded Age:
  • I am in the cast-iron position of the man who falls into line with the law of the land.1915, E. Phillips Oppenheim, chapter 14, in An Amiable Charlatan:
  • I believe that to comply with the law of the land I ought to continue to use the Gents', but in order not to look out place I intend to use the Ladies' from now on.2004, David Nobbs, Sex and Other Changes, page 95:
  • But what’s law is law and you abide by the law of the land."2013 September 24, Manny Fernandez, “In Corner of Arkansas, Frustration but No Panic Over Possible Shutdown”, in New York Times, retrieved...

Questions about law of the land

What does law of the land mean?
Law of the land means a particular law or the complete set of laws currently in effect within a jurisdiction, especially with emphasis on the official and authoritative nature of such law.
What is law of the land in Kannada?
Law of the land in Kannada is ದೇಶದ ನ್ಯಾಯಸೂತ್ರಗಳು, ದೇಶಧರ್ಮ. See Law of the land meaning in Kannada.
How do you use law of the land in a sentence?
He confessed that neither he nor any citizen had a right to consult his own feelings or conscience in a case where a law of the land had been violated before his own eyes.
What part of speech is law of the land?
Law of the land is a noun.

Words near law of the land in the dictionary

  1. law of sufficient reason
  2. law of tangents
  3. law of the excluded middle
  4. law of the instrument
  5. law of the jungle
  6. law of the land
  7. Law of the Medes and Persians
  8. law of the Medes and the Persians
  9. law of the sea
  10. law of the tongue
  11. law of unintended consequences

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: law of the land (page history and authors); law of the land (Kannada Wiktionary) (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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Cite this entry: “law of the land.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/law_of_the_land. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.