"above the law" meaning in English

See above the law in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Prepositional phrase

Audio: en-au-above the law.ogg
Head templates: {{head|en|prepositional phrase|head=}} above the law, {{en-prep phrase}} above the law
  1. Exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else. Categories (topical): Law Related terms: law unto oneself Translations (exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else): 凌駕於法律之上 /凌驾于法律之上 (língjià yú fǎlǜ zhīshàng) (Chinese Mandarin), boven de wet (Dutch), lain yläpuolella (Finnish), au-dessus des lois (French), über dem Gesetz (German), υπεράνω του νόμου (yperáno tou nómou) (Greek), al di sopra della legge (Italian), 法の埒外 (hō no rachigai) (alt: ほうのらちがい) (Japanese), ponad prawem (Polish), acima da lei (Portuguese), превы́ше зако́на (prevýše zakóna) (Russian), por encima de la ley (Spanish)
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          "name": "Law",
          "orig": "en:Law",
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            "Fundamental"
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        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: below the law"
        },
        {
          "text": "The emperor is above the law.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "You may think you're above the law, but you're not.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "ref": "1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:",
          "text": "'The law,' she laughed with scorn - 'the law! Canst thou not understand, oh Holly, that I am above the law, and so shall my Kallikrates be also? All human law will be to us as the north wind to a mountain.'",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2022 August 26, “Donald Trump Is Not Above the Law”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "If we hesitate to call those actions and their perpetrator criminal, then we are saying he is above the law and giving license to future presidents to do whatever they want.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "Exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else."
      ],
      "id": "en-above_the_law-en-prep_phrase-JXUU5HMD",
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          "Exempt",
          "exempt"
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          "law",
          "law"
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          "apply",
          "apply"
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      ],
      "related": [
        {
          "word": "law unto oneself"
        }
      ],
      "translations": [
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "língjià yú fǎlǜ zhīshàng",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "凌駕於法律之上 /凌驾于法律之上"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "boven de wet"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "lain yläpuolella"
        },
        {
          "code": "fr",
          "lang": "French",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "au-dessus des lois"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "über dem Gesetz"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "yperáno tou nómou",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "υπεράνω του νόμου"
        },
        {
          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "al di sopra della legge"
        },
        {
          "alt": "ほうのらちがい",
          "code": "ja",
          "lang": "Japanese",
          "roman": "hō no rachigai",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "法の埒外"
        },
        {
          "code": "pl",
          "lang": "Polish",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "ponad prawem"
        },
        {
          "code": "pt",
          "lang": "Portuguese",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "acima da lei"
        },
        {
          "code": "ru",
          "lang": "Russian",
          "roman": "prevýše zakóna",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "превы́ше зако́на"
        },
        {
          "code": "es",
          "lang": "Spanish",
          "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
          "word": "por encima de la ley"
        }
      ]
    }
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  "word": "above the law"
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  "lang_code": "en",
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      "word": "law unto oneself"
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        {
          "text": "Coordinate term: below the law"
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          "text": "The emperor is above the law.",
          "type": "example"
        },
        {
          "text": "You may think you're above the law, but you're not.",
          "type": "example"
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          "ref": "1886 October – 1887 January, H[enry] Rider Haggard, She: A History of Adventure, London: Longmans, Green, and Co., published 1887, →OCLC:",
          "text": "'The law,' she laughed with scorn - 'the law! Canst thou not understand, oh Holly, that I am above the law, and so shall my Kallikrates be also? All human law will be to us as the north wind to a mountain.'",
          "type": "quote"
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          "ref": "2022 August 26, “Donald Trump Is Not Above the Law”, in The New York Times, →ISSN:",
          "text": "If we hesitate to call those actions and their perpetrator criminal, then we are saying he is above the law and giving license to future presidents to do whatever they want.",
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        "Exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else."
      ],
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          "Exempt",
          "exempt"
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          "law",
          "law"
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    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "língjià yú fǎlǜ zhīshàng",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "凌駕於法律之上 /凌驾于法律之上"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "boven de wet"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "lain yläpuolella"
    },
    {
      "code": "fr",
      "lang": "French",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "au-dessus des lois"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "über dem Gesetz"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "yperáno tou nómou",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "υπεράνω του νόμου"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "al di sopra della legge"
    },
    {
      "alt": "ほうのらちがい",
      "code": "ja",
      "lang": "Japanese",
      "roman": "hō no rachigai",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "法の埒外"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "ponad prawem"
    },
    {
      "code": "pt",
      "lang": "Portuguese",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "acima da lei"
    },
    {
      "code": "ru",
      "lang": "Russian",
      "roman": "prevýše zakóna",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "превы́ше зако́на"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "exempt from the laws that apply to everyone else",
      "word": "por encima de la ley"
    }
  ],
  "word": "above the law"
}

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This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-25 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-20 using wiktextract (c15a5ce and 5c11237). 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.