in-lawry

From in-law +‎ -ry.^[1]

in-lawry (uncountable)

1. (rare) The condition of being an in-law.
   • 1898 April 1, “Social Suggestions for 1898. IX.—A Plea for the ‘In-Law.’”, in The Westminster Gazette, special edition, volume XI, number 1,588, London: […] John Marshall, […], →OCLC, page 1, column 3:

     In the course of a long life we have only met one person who claimed to be wholly guiltless of “in-lawry.” […] For those who waste their time on reflection it is curious to note that although, as has been pointed out, “in-lawry” is the common fate of the entire human race—you may get through life untouched by fire, water, small-pox, or bankruptcy, but here is no escape—the entire human race continues to remain in open revolt at the situation, alternately gibbing and buck-jumping, as if it were a new impost invented of a cheeseparing Exchequer Chancellor to vex the souls and rob the tills of unoffending citizens.

   • 1945 March 1, Garry C. Myers, “Parent Problems”, in Pottstown Mercury, volume 14, number 132, Pottstown, Pa.: Pottstown Daily News Publishing Co., →OCLC, page 4, column 7:

     Just as we parents are inclined to reveal certain human frailties which parenthood tends to bring out, so also we grandparents and in-laws are inclined to reveal certain human frailties which our grandparenthood and in-lawry tend to uncover.

   • 1969, Richard Cobb, “Maigret’s Paris”, in Derwent May, editor, Good Talk 2: An Anthology from BBC Radio, New York, N.Y.: Taplinger Publishing Company, published 1970, →ISBN, →LCCN, part IV (Imaginings), page 230:

     If he has no deep understanding of individual conduct, like any good provincial observer he can perceive the hidden network of groups, […] by the complicated genealogies of in-lawry.