See lay down the law on Wiktionary
Download JSON data for lay down the law meaning in All languages combined (3.3kB)
{
"forms": [
{
"form": "lays down the law",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "laying down the law",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "laid down the law",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "laid down the law",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "lay<,,laid> down the law",
"head": "lay down the law"
},
"expansion": "lay down the law (third-person singular simple present lays down the law, present participle laying down the law, simple past and past participle laid down the law)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"senses": [
{
"categories": [],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1982, “Mesopotamia”, performed by The B-52's",
"text": "Six or eight thousand years ago / They laid down the law / In Mesopotamia",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2004, John Lierman, The New Testament Moses, page 125",
"text": "[I]n other words, some Jews thought of Moses as the one who laid down the Law, while others saw him more as a prophet.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To promulgate law."
],
"id": "en-lay_down_the_law-en-verb-meW0iwzJ",
"links": [
[
"promulgate",
"promulgate"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "Law",
"orig": "en:Law",
"parents": [
"Justice",
"Society",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To present the law that applies to a given case."
],
"id": "en-lay_down_the_law-en-verb-~f0zW7lH",
"links": [
[
"law",
"law#English"
],
[
"case",
"case"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(law, dated) To present the law that applies to a given case."
],
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "35 58 8",
"word": "read the riot act"
}
],
"tags": [
"dated"
],
"topics": [
"law"
]
},
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "8 39 53",
"kind": "other",
"name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1818, Sir Walter Scott, The Heart of Mid-Lothian, chapter 4",
"text": "He concluded this sentence with a self-important cough, as one who has laid down the law in an indisputable manner.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1908, Upton Sinclair, The Moneychangers, chapter 19",
"text": "Montague could picture the grim, hawk-faced old man, sitting at the head of the council board, and laying down the law to the masters of the Metropolis.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2003, Robert Ludlum with Gayle Lynds, The Altman code, page 357",
"text": "Looks like the governor's laid down the law about the guards getting too lax, so we have to be damned careful.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To authoritatively or dogmatically assert what is permitted or not permitted."
],
"id": "en-lay_down_the_law-en-verb-2Hy5KpkS",
"links": [
[
"authoritatively",
"authoritatively"
],
[
"dogmatically",
"dogmatically"
],
[
"assert",
"assert"
],
[
"permit",
"permit"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To authoritatively or dogmatically assert what is permitted or not permitted."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-lay down the law.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ef/En-au-lay_down_the_law.ogg/En-au-lay_down_the_law.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/En-au-lay_down_the_law.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "lay down the law"
}
{
"categories": [
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English multiword terms",
"English terms with audio links",
"English verbs"
],
"forms": [
{
"form": "lays down the law",
"tags": [
"present",
"singular",
"third-person"
]
},
{
"form": "laying down the law",
"tags": [
"participle",
"present"
]
},
{
"form": "laid down the law",
"tags": [
"participle",
"past"
]
},
{
"form": "laid down the law",
"tags": [
"past"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {
"1": "lay<,,laid> down the law",
"head": "lay down the law"
},
"expansion": "lay down the law (third-person singular simple present lays down the law, present participle laying down the law, simple past and past participle laid down the law)",
"name": "en-verb"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "verb",
"related": [
{
"word": "read the riot act"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1982, “Mesopotamia”, performed by The B-52's",
"text": "Six or eight thousand years ago / They laid down the law / In Mesopotamia",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2004, John Lierman, The New Testament Moses, page 125",
"text": "[I]n other words, some Jews thought of Moses as the one who laid down the Law, while others saw him more as a prophet.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To promulgate law."
],
"links": [
[
"promulgate",
"promulgate"
]
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English dated terms",
"en:Law"
],
"glosses": [
"To present the law that applies to a given case."
],
"links": [
[
"law",
"law#English"
],
[
"case",
"case"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(law, dated) To present the law that applies to a given case."
],
"tags": [
"dated"
],
"topics": [
"law"
]
},
{
"categories": [
"English idioms",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1818, Sir Walter Scott, The Heart of Mid-Lothian, chapter 4",
"text": "He concluded this sentence with a self-important cough, as one who has laid down the law in an indisputable manner.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "1908, Upton Sinclair, The Moneychangers, chapter 19",
"text": "Montague could picture the grim, hawk-faced old man, sitting at the head of the council board, and laying down the law to the masters of the Metropolis.",
"type": "quotation"
},
{
"ref": "2003, Robert Ludlum with Gayle Lynds, The Altman code, page 357",
"text": "Looks like the governor's laid down the law about the guards getting too lax, so we have to be damned careful.",
"type": "quotation"
}
],
"glosses": [
"To authoritatively or dogmatically assert what is permitted or not permitted."
],
"links": [
[
"authoritatively",
"authoritatively"
],
[
"dogmatically",
"dogmatically"
],
[
"assert",
"assert"
],
[
"permit",
"permit"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(idiomatic) To authoritatively or dogmatically assert what is permitted or not permitted."
],
"tags": [
"idiomatic"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"audio": "En-au-lay down the law.ogg",
"mp3_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/transcoded/e/ef/En-au-lay_down_the_law.ogg/En-au-lay_down_the_law.ogg.mp3",
"ogg_url": "https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/En-au-lay_down_the_law.ogg",
"tags": [
"Australia"
],
"text": "Audio (AU)"
}
],
"word": "lay down the law"
}
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable All languages combined dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-12 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-05-02 using wiktextract (ae36afe and 304864d). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.