Word.ws English Dictionary

windward of the law

windward of the law prepositional phrase: within the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.

Prepositional phrase

  1. Within the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.
    • "[…] drop my anchor to the windward of the law." Adams estimated the distance between them even as he spoke. Ryker gripped his stomach again and more sweat dripped from his unnaturally white face onto his filthy shirt, but he was well enough that any attempt at rushing him would be suicidal.1998, Dean Barrett, Hangman's Point
    • His code was the end justified the means with men who operated windward of the law. Since thieves followed no rules, he played the game accordingly, with a slight variation. He wrote his own rules as he went along.2006, Matt Braun, Westward of the Law, page 54

Questions about windward of the law

What does windward of the law mean?
Windward of the law means within the letter of the law but not the spirit of the law.
What part of speech is windward of the law?
Windward of the law is a prepositional phrase.

Words near windward of the law in the dictionary

  1. Windward Antilles
  2. Windward Islander
  3. Windward Islanders
  4. Windward Islands
  5. Windward Isles
  6. windward of the law
  7. Windward Passage
  8. windwardly
  9. windwardmost
  10. windwardness
  11. windwards

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: windward of 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: “windward of the law.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/windward_of_the_law. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.