Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use unlawful in a sentence

18 example sentences · adjective

Unlawful means prohibited; not permitted by law (either civil or criminal law; see illegal). Example: “He was charged with unlawful use of a car.”

Examples of unlawful by meaning

adjectiveProhibited; not permitted by law (either civil or criminal law; see illegal).

  • He was charged with unlawful use of a car.
  • That year a U.S. appeals court found the program Snowden had exposed was unlawful and that the U.S. intelligence leaders who publicly defended it were not telling the truth.2022 September 26, “Putin grants Russian citizenship to U.S. whistleblower Snowden”, in Mark Trevelyan, editor, Reuters, archived from the...

More sentences with unlawful

  • Calls to cut and run without paying a penny in the Brexit settlement are unlawful and unethical.2017 May 3, Helena Kennedy, “You can’t just cut and run from Europe, Theresa May – it’s illegal”, in The Guardian. From the entry cut and run
  • The issue of a wife is unlawful seed; And none's legitimate, but mongrel breed.2012, Faramerz Dabhoiwala, The Origins of Sex: A History of the First Sexual Revolution, →ISBN. From the entry true-bred
  • Swiss bank accounts) or a cloak for unlawful maneuvers of governmental and corporate institutions.2008, Ursula K. Heise, Sense of Place and Sense of Planet, →ISBN. From the entry billennial
  • Third, respect your suppermate, so as not to eat more than he, for that is unlawful.1991, Julie Scott Meisami, transl., The Sea of Precious Virtues (Baḥr al-Favāʼid): A Medieval Islamic Mirror for Princes, Salt Lake City…. From the entry suppermate
  • I'm going to sue you for unlawful detention, womannapping, and holding me against my will.[1985, Lass Small, Tangled Web (Silhouette Desire; 241), New York, N.Y.: Silhouette Books, →ISBN, page 154. From the entry womannap
  • The initial stop was unlawful and pretextual.2024 April 24, Family of Chicago man fatally shot by police files federal civil rights lawsuit against city and tactical officers, CNN. From the entry cpd
  • Rather than engage in this process, UC asked PERB for an injunction against the strike, which they claim is unlawful.”2024 June 22, Monica Stark, “Grad students will strike at UCD next week”, in The Davis Enterprise. From the entry PERB
  • Police responded by declaring an “unlawful session,” KOIN reported.2021 June 22, Isabella Khademhosseini, “Portland’s tourist boss takes a full page of the New York Times admitting that a rioted city has…. From the entry Chaz
  • He alleged that the termination of his contract had been unlawful and sought reinstatement and compensation for loss of salary.2007 July 26, European Court of Human Rights (Fifth Section), Peev v. Bulgaria (Application no. 64209/01), Strasbourg, paragraph 19. From the entry aver
  • Moderate assaultives included persons convicted of wounding with intent to cause serious bodily harm, malicious or unlawful wounding, and assault.1980, Curt R. Bartol, chapter 8, in Criminal Behavior: A Psychosocial Approach,, Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, page 223. From the entry assaultive
  • Perhaps it was by virtue of some sixth sense that men born for unlawful occupations may be gifted with.1919, Joseph Conrad, chapter III, in The Arrow of Gold: A Story between Two Notes, London: T[homas] Fisher Unwin, […], →OCLC. From the entry sixth sense
  • Being in unlawful possession of a government trophy or failing to make a report of obtaining possession of a government trophy is also an offence.2017, Didi Wamukoya, Analysis of Botswana's Wildlife Policies and Laws, page 13. From the entry government trophy
  • This distinction is all the more important when we are in a jurisdiction where the free-handed mortgage of a stock in trade is unlawful.1943, Garrard Glenn, Mortgages, deeds of trust, and other security devices as to land, Volume 3, page 409. From the entry free-handed
  • The supreme court of Victoria has upheld a decision the transfer of juvenile detainees to an adult maximum security prison, where some of them spent Christmas Day, was unlawful.2016 December 28, Calla Wahlquist, “Supreme court upholds ruling that children are being held at adult prison unlawfully”, in Katharine…. From the entry appeal
  • At early common law, gaming was not unlawful so long as it did not tend to immoralize the innocent or affect the interests of those not similarly engaged.1971, Earl W. Kintner, a Primer on the Law of Deceptive Practices, page 202. From the entry immoralize
  • The denial then lives on during the different stages of the genocide and is invoked continuously by the perpetrator whenever its actions are criticized or labeled as atrocities and unlawful.2013, Vahagn Avedian, “Recognition, Responsibility and Reconciliation: The Trinity of the Armenian Genocide”, in Europa Ethnica, volume…. From the entry denial

Meaning of unlawful

  1. adjective Prohibited; not permitted by law (either civil or criminal law; see illegal).

Full definition of unlawful

Questions about unlawful in a sentence

How do you use unlawful in a sentence?
Unlawful is used as an adjective. For example: “He was charged with unlawful use of a car.”
What is a short sentence with unlawful?
“The initial stop was unlawful and pretextual.”
What does unlawful mean?
Unlawful means prohibited; not permitted by law (either civil or criminal law; see illegal).

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unlawful (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Cite this page: “How to use unlawful in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/unlawful. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.