Word.ws English Dictionary

lays down the law

lays down the law is the third-person singular simple present indicative 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 lays down the law

What is lays down the law the third-person singular simple present indicative of?
Lays down the law is the third-person singular simple present indicative of lay down the law.

Words near lays down the law in the dictionary

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

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: lays 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.

Last updated:

Cite this entry: “lays down the law.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/lays_down_the_law. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.