Word.ws English Dictionary

laying down the law

laying down the law is the present participle and gerund of lay down the law.

Meaning of lay down the law

Verb

lay down the law (third-person singular simple present lays down the law, present participle laying down the law, simple past and past participle laid down the law)

  1. To promulgate law.
    • Six or eight thousand years ago / They laid down the law / In Mesopotamia1982, “Mesopotamia”, performed by The B-52's
  2. (dated) To present the law that applies to a given case.
  3. (idiomatic) To authoritatively or dogmatically assert what is permitted or not permitted.
    • He concluded this sentence with a self-important cough, as one who has laid down the law in an indisputable manner.1818, Sir Walter Scott, The Heart of Mid-Lothian, chapter 4

Questions about laying down the law

What is laying down the law the present participle and gerund of?
Laying down the law is the present participle and gerund of lay down the law.

Words near laying down the law in the dictionary

  1. laying down arms
  2. laying down on
  3. laying down one's arms
  4. laying down one's life
  5. laying down one's weapons
  6. laying down the law
  7. laying down the marker
  8. laying eggs
  9. laying eyes on
  10. laying for
  11. laying hands on

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: laying down the law (page history and authors); lay down 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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