lawbreaking

English

Alternative forms

  • law-breaking

Etymology

From law +‎ breaking.

Adjective

lawbreaking (no attested comparative, superlative most lawbreaking)

  1. unlawful; illegal.
    Synonyms: crimeful, wrongful; see also Thesaurus:unlawful
    Synonyms: law-abiding, lawful; see also Thesaurus:lawful
    We have a place for lawbreaking citizens like you.
    • 1994 April 19, “LETTERS TO THE EDITOR”, in San Francisco Chronicle, page A18:
      To make this penalty hang like a Sword of Damocles over every lawbreaking alien apprehended in this country
    • 2006 April 24, “Clergy stakes out key role in debate”, in San Bernardino (CA) Sun:
      Although church leaders argue they're trying to help the most vulnerable in society, some, including parishioners, argue they're helping the most lawbreaking.

Noun

lawbreaking (plural lawbreakings)

  1. The commission of a criminal act, the violation or breaking of a law.
    His lawbreaking ended only when he was hanged for it.
This article is issued from Wiktionary. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.