Lawful

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Lawful \Law"ful\, a.
     1. Conformable to law; allowed by law; legitimate; competent.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Constituted or authorized by law; rightful; as, the lawful
        owner of lands.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Lawful age}, the age when the law recognizes one's right of
        independent action; majority; -- generally the age of
        twenty-one years. Also called {legal age} or {age of
        majority}.
        [1913 Webster +PJC]
  
     Note: In some of the States, and for some purposes, a woman
           attains lawful age at eighteen. --Abbott.
  
     Syn: Legal; constitutional; allowable; regular; rightful.
  
     Usage: {Lawful}, {Legal}. Lawful means conformable to the
            principle, spirit, or essence of the law, and is
            applicable to moral as well as juridical law. Legal
            means conformable to the letter or rules of the law as
            it is administered in the courts; conformable to
            juridical law. Legal is often used as antithetical to
            equitable, but lawful is seldom used in that sense. --
            {Law"ful*ly}, adv. -- {Law"ful*ness}, n.
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  lawful
       adj 1: conformable to or allowed by law; "lawful methods of
              dissent" [ant: {unlawful}]
       2: according to custom or rule or natural law [syn: {orderly},
          {rule-governed}]
       3: having a legally established claim; "the legitimate heir";
          "the true and lawful king" [syn: {true(a)}, {rightful(a)}]
       4: authorized, sanctioned by, or in accordance with law; "a
          legitimate government" [syn: {legitimate}, {licit}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  125 Moby Thesaurus words for "lawful":
     actionable, admissible, allowable, allowed, applicable, authentic,
     authoritative, authorized, balanced, binding, bona fide, candid,
     card-carrying, cogent, competent, consistent, constitutional,
     de jure, defensible, deserved, dinkum, due, equitable, even,
     evenhanded, fair, fair and square, fit, following the letter,
     genuine, good, honest, honest-to-God, inartificial, judicial,
     juridical, just, justiciable, justifiable, justified, kosher,
     lawmaking, legal, legislative, legit, legitimate, legitimized,
     level, licit, lifelike, literal, logical, meet, meet and right,
     merited, natural, naturalistic, original, permissible, permitted,
     proper, pure, real, realistic, right, right and proper, rightful,
     sanctionable, sanctioned, self-consistent, simon-pure, simple,
     sincere, solid, sound, square, statutory, sterling, substantial,
     sufficient, sure-enough, true to life, true to nature,
     true to reality, unadulterated, unaffected, unassumed, unassuming,
     uncolored, unconcocted, uncopied, uncounterfeited, undisguised,
     undisguising, undistorted, unexaggerated, unfabricated, unfanciful,
     unfeigned, unfeigning, unfictitious, unflattering, unimagined,
     unimitated, uninvented, unpretended, unpretending, unqualified,
     unromantic, unsimulated, unspecious, unsynthetic, unvarnished,
     valid, verbal, verbatim, veridical, verisimilar, warrantable,
     warranted, weighty, well-founded, well-grounded, within the law,
     word-for-word
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  LAWFUL. That which is not forbidden by law. Id omne licitum est, quod non 
  est legibus prohibitum, quamobrem, quod, lege permittente, fit, poenam non 
  meretur. To be valid a contract must be lawful. 
  
  

From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:

  LAWFUL, adj.  Compatible with the will of a judge having jurisdiction.