Unwritten

3 definitions found

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

  Unwritten \Un*writ"ten\, a.
     1. Not written; not reduced to writing; oral; as, unwritten
        agreements.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Containing no writing; blank; as, unwritten paper.


        [1913 Webster]
  
     {Unwritten doctrines} (Theol.), such doctrines as have been
        handed down by word of mouth; oral or traditional
        doctrines.
  
     {Unwritten law}. [Cf. L. lex non scripta.] That part of the
        law of England and of the United States which is not
        derived from express legislative enactment, or at least
        from any enactment now extant and in force as such. This
        law is now generally contained in the reports of judicial
        decisions. See {Common law}, under {Common}.
  
     {Unwritten laws}, such laws as have been handed down by
        tradition or in song. Such were the laws of the early
        nations of Europe.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  unwritten
       adj 1: based on custom rather than documentation; "an unwritten
              law"; "rites...so ancient that they well might have
              had their unwritten origins in Aurignacian times"-
              J.L.T.C.Spence [ant: {written}]
       2: using speech rather than writing; "an oral tradition"; "an
          oral agreement" [syn: {oral}]
       3: said or done without having been planned or written in
          advance; "he made a few ad-lib remarks" [syn: {ad-lib}, {spontaneous}]

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

  66 Moby Thesaurus words for "unwritten":
     acknowledged, admitted, articulated, conventional, customary,
     enunciated, established, fixed, folk, hallowed, handed down,
     heroic, hoary, immemorial, inveterate, legendary, lingual,
     linguistic, long-established, long-standing, mythological,
     nuncupative, of long standing, of the folk, oral, parol,
     prescriptive, pronounced, received, recognized, rooted, said,
     silent, sounded, speech, spoken, time-honored, traditional,
     tried and true, true-blue, undeclared, understood, unexpressed,
     unmentioned, unproclaimed, unpronounced, unpublished, unrecorded,
     unsaid, unspoken, unsung, untalked-of, untold, unuttered, unvoiced,
     uttered, venerable, verbal, viva voce, vocal, vocalized, voiced,
     voiceful, word-of-mouth, wordless, worshipful