Lawe
noun, verb
noun, verb ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 Obsolete spelling of law (“system of regulations etc.”). alt-of, countable, obsolete, uncountable
Verb
- 1 To cut off the claws and balls of (e.g. a dog's forefeet, to hinder it from hunting). transitive
"They were enveloped in forms, and easily evaded ; like a lawed dog, too mutilated to catch their game."
Example
More examples"They were enveloped in forms, and easily evaded ; like a lawed dog, too mutilated to catch their game."
Etymology
Perhaps from law because the practice was ordained by law. Few dictionaries comment directly on the etymology of the sense, but several (which also spell the infinitive law) group it with the other verb and noun senses derived from Old English lagu (“law”).
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.