VOCABULARY - IDIOMS

Idioms about law

Idioms about law

  • above suspicion

    Meaning: This phrase is used to describe a person who is honest enough that no one would suspect.

  • above the law

    Meaning: Exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else.

  • bend the law

    Meaning: The phrase to bend the law means to cheat a little bit without breaking the law.

  • case-by-case

    Meaning: Separate and distinct from others of the same kind.

  • hold someone accountable (for something)

    Meaning: to consider someone responsible for something.

  • in the eyes of the law

    Meaning: legally.

  • Justice is blind

    Meaning: This expression means that justice is impartial and objective. There is an allusion here to the Greek statue for justice, wearing a blindfold so as not to treat friends differently from strangers, or rich people better than the poor ones.

  • law of the jungle

    Meaning: This expression means survival of the strongest or the fittest.

  • law unto oneself

    Meaning: This idiomatic expression describes a person who behaves in an independent way, ignoring rules and what is generally accepted as correct.

  • lay down the law

    Meaning: tell people what they should do in a forceful and stern way.

  • necessity knows no law

    Meaning: Necessity knows no law is a proverb. It means that being desperate and having no means may lead you to do illegal things.

  • one's word is law

    Meaning: The idiom one's word is law means that what someone says must be obeyed.

  • possession is nine points of the law

    Meaning: Possession is nine points of the lawis a phrase used to suggest that if you really possess something, you will easily claim its ownership than someone who just says it belongs to him or her.

  • read the riot act

    Meaning: if you read the riot act to someone, you warn or reprimand them energetically or forcefully

  • signed, sealed and delivered

    Meaning: This expression refers to a document or an agreement which has been officially signed and completed satisfactorily.

  • the letter of the law

    Meaning: This idiom is used when one is obeying the literal interpretation of the law, but not the intent or the spirit of those who wrote the law.

  • the long arm of the law

    Meaning: This idiomatic expression refers to the far-reaching power of the authorities or the police.

  • the spirit of the law

    Meaning: When one obeys the spirit of the law but not the letter, one is doing what the authors of the law intended, though not necessarily adhering to the literal wording.

  • unwritten law

    Meaning: The phrase unwritten law refers to an accepted rule in spite of its informality.

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