lawless Hear it!

lawless Definition

law·less (-lis)

adjective

  1. without law; not regulated by the authority of law a lawless city
  2. not in conformity with law; illegal lawless practices
  3. not obeying the law; unruly; disorderly

lawless Related Forms

law′·lessly adverb law′·less·ness noun

lawless Synonyms

lawless

modif.

  1. Without law

    wild, untamed, uncivilized, savage, native, uncultivated, barbarous, fierce, violent, turbulent, unpeaceful, tempestuous, disordered, agitated, disturbed, warlike; see also uncontrolled.

    Antonyms cultured*, cultivated*, controlled.

  2. Not restrained by law

    insurgent, mutinous, riotous, ungovernable, nihilistic, nonconformist, unorthodox, seditious, in defiance of the law, traitorous, recusant, contumacious, seditious, revolutionary, insubordinate, disobedient, piratical, terrorizing, tyrannous, anarchic, anarchistic, anarchical, heterodox, despotic, bad, criminal, evil, infringing, noncompliant, defiant, rude, recalcitrant, refractory, transgressive; see also mobbish, rebellious 2, unruly.

lawless Usage Examples

Modifies a noun

  • deed: They usually cite Hebrews 10:17: Their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more ( cf.
  • region: The alternative is a country which begins to look more like Afghanistan than Vietnam, with increasingly lawless regions.
  • man: And they stationed there a sinful people, lawless men.
  • state: We [ Serbia ] are a lawless state that adores legal formalities.
  • society: There can be no harmony in a lawless society.
  • land: Armed forces roam the lawless land where dark columns of smoke rise up from the surrounding farms and houses.

Modifying Another Word

  • very: I had a really good time, Peru didn't yet have guerrillas but it was nevertheless a very lawless place.
  • utterly: In the rest of the park, which is utterly lawless, we can only conclude there has been an uncontrolled massacre.
  • fairly: The last part, Eastern Turkey, was fairly lawless - camp in villages, not in the wild.
  • often: Journalists in Pakistan also faced difficulties, mainly reporting from the often lawless and extremely dangerous tribal regions that border Afghanistan.

Used with adjective complement

become: One ' but ' is that the state itself can become lawless.