lawless
/ˈlɔːləs/
lawless adjective: not governed by any law.
Adjective
lawless (comparative more lawless, superlative most lawless)
- Not governed by any law.
- Prohibited by law; unlawful, illegal.
- This countrey ſwarmes with vile outragious men,
That liue by rapine and by lawleſſe ſpoile,
Fit ſouldiers for the wicked Tamburlaine.c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC... - For ſure the Gods / Are not devoid of wiſdom, but perceive / What oaths are lawleſs and by force extorted.1782, Euripides, “Iphegenia in Aulis”, in Michael Wodhull, transl., The Nineteen Tragedies and Fragments of Euripides. … In Four Volumes, volume II, London: […] Thomas Payne and Son, […], →OCLC, page...
- This countrey ſwarmes with vile outragious men,
- Not restrained by the law or by discipline; disorderly, unruly.
- On why leaving lawless places and leaving pseudovirtuous groups is loving such places and groups
Proper noun capitalized: Lawless
Lawless (plural Lawlesses)
- A surname from Middle English.
lawless meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam
lawless in Tamil
- சட்டத்திற்குக் கட்டுப்படாத, சட்டமற்ற, சட்டமீறிய
lawless in Urdu
- غیرقانونی
lawless in Bengali
- lawless
- নিয়মহীন niẏomhin
lawless in Malayalam
- disorderly, anarchic, ungovernable
- നിയമവാഴ്ചയില്ലാത്ത, നിയമമില്ലാത്ത, നിയമവിരുദ്ധമായ, അരാജക, നിയമരഹിതമായ, നിർന്നാഥ
- unlawful, illegal, lawbreaking
- നിയമവിരുദ്ധമായ, നിയമാനുസൃതമല്ലാത്ത, അവിധി, ധർമ്മോപേക്ഷകമായ, നിയമമനുവദിക്കാത്ത, കുറ്റകരം
More languagesFewer languages
- lawless in Kannada
- ಪುಂಡು, ಕಟ್ಟಲೆ ಮೀರಿದ, ಹತೋಟಿಗೆ ಸಿಗದ
Examples of lawless in a sentence
- We have a broken and lawless system in the United States of America.
- A fine example you are to a growing boy, with your lawless advice and thugduggery.
- Refugees, flightlings, black things, whose dissident passage through understanding is often taken for a kind of lawless freedom.
Forms of lawless
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more lawless |
| superlative | most lawless |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Lawlesses |
Origin of lawless
From Middle English laweles; equivalent to law + -less. Cognate with Danish lovløs (“lawless”), Swedish laglös (“lawless”), Norwegian lovløs (“lawless”), Icelandic löglaus (“lawless”).
From Middle English laweles (“lawless”), a nickname for an unrestrained and licentious man.
Words formed from lawless
Words that rhyme with lawless
Questions about lawless
- What does lawless mean?
- Lawless means not governed by any law.
- What is lawless in Tamil?
- Lawless in Tamil is சட்டத்திற்குக் கட்டுப்படாத, சட்டமற்ற, சட்டமீறிய. See Lawless meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is lawless?
- Lawless can be an adjective or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce lawless?
- Lawless is pronounced /ˈlɔːləs/.
Words near lawless in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: lawless (page history and authors); Lawless (page history and authors); lawless (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); lawless (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); নিয়মহীন (Bengali) (page history and authors); lawless (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); lawless (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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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-lawless.ogg.
Cite this entry: “lawless.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lawless. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.