"long arm of the law" meaning in English

See long arm of the law in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Audio: En-au-long arm of the law.ogg [Australia]
Head templates: {{head|en|noun|head=long arm of the law}} long arm of the law
  1. (idiomatic, almost always preceded by the) The influence or effectiveness of law enforcement institutions; law enforcement officers collectively. Tags: idiomatic Categories (topical): Collectives, Law, Law enforcement Translations (influence or effectiveness of law enforcement): 法網 (Chinese Mandarin), 法网 (wǎngluó) (Chinese Mandarin), 網羅 (Chinese Mandarin), 网罗 (fǎwǎng) (Chinese Mandarin), lovens lange arm (Danish), lange arm der wet (Dutch), lain pitkä koura (Finnish), lain koura (Finnish), Rechtspflege [feminine] (German), τσιμπίδα του νόμου (tsimpída tou nómou) [feminine] (Greek), braccio della legge (Italian), lovens lange arm (Norwegian Bokmål), lovas lange arm (Norwegian Nynorsk), lovens lange arm (Norwegian Nynorsk), wymiar sprawiedliwości [masculine] (Polish), brațul legii [neuter] (Romanian), brațul lung al legii [neuter] (Romanian), brazo de la ley (Spanish), lagens långa arm [common-gender] (Swedish)

Download JSON data for long arm of the law meaning in English (5.7kB)

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          "ref": "1889, Wilkie Collins, chapter 60, in The Legacy of Cain",
          "text": "It is my belief that I could have felt no greater dismay, if the long arm of the Law had laid its hold on me while he was speaking.",
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          "ref": "1979 September 3, “Pass the Buck”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-09-01",
          "text": "The long arm of the law does not protect banks the way it used to.",
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        {
          "ref": "2008 September 12, Lisa Rein, “Jurisdictions Share Data on Ex-Offenders”, in Washington Post",
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        "(idiomatic, almost always preceded by the) The influence or effectiveness of law enforcement institutions; law enforcement officers collectively."
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          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "法網"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "wǎngluó",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "法网"
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          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "網羅"
        },
        {
          "code": "cmn",
          "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
          "roman": "fǎwǎng",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "网罗"
        },
        {
          "code": "da",
          "lang": "Danish",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "lovens lange arm"
        },
        {
          "code": "nl",
          "lang": "Dutch",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "lange arm der wet"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "lain pitkä koura"
        },
        {
          "code": "fi",
          "lang": "Finnish",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "lain koura"
        },
        {
          "code": "de",
          "lang": "German",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "Rechtspflege"
        },
        {
          "code": "el",
          "lang": "Greek",
          "roman": "tsimpída tou nómou",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "tags": [
            "feminine"
          ],
          "word": "τσιμπίδα του νόμου"
        },
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          "code": "it",
          "lang": "Italian",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "braccio della legge"
        },
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          "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "lovens lange arm"
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          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
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          "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
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          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
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          ],
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        },
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          "lang": "Romanian",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "tags": [
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          ],
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        },
        {
          "code": "ro",
          "lang": "Romanian",
          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "tags": [
            "neuter"
          ],
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          "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
          "word": "brazo de la ley"
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          "ref": "1979 September 3, “Pass the Buck”, in Time, archived from the original on 2010-09-01",
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          "ref": "2008 September 12, Lisa Rein, “Jurisdictions Share Data on Ex-Offenders”, in Washington Post",
          "text": "\"Repeat violent offenders will hopscotch over state lines to avoid the long arm of the law,\" said Maryland Gov. Martin O'Malley.",
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  "translations": [
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "法網"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "wǎngluó",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "法网"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "網羅"
    },
    {
      "code": "cmn",
      "lang": "Chinese Mandarin",
      "roman": "fǎwǎng",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "网罗"
    },
    {
      "code": "da",
      "lang": "Danish",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "lovens lange arm"
    },
    {
      "code": "nl",
      "lang": "Dutch",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "lange arm der wet"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "lain pitkä koura"
    },
    {
      "code": "fi",
      "lang": "Finnish",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "lain koura"
    },
    {
      "code": "de",
      "lang": "German",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "Rechtspflege"
    },
    {
      "code": "el",
      "lang": "Greek",
      "roman": "tsimpída tou nómou",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "tags": [
        "feminine"
      ],
      "word": "τσιμπίδα του νόμου"
    },
    {
      "code": "it",
      "lang": "Italian",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "braccio della legge"
    },
    {
      "code": "nb",
      "lang": "Norwegian Bokmål",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "lovens lange arm"
    },
    {
      "code": "nn",
      "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "lovas lange arm"
    },
    {
      "code": "nn",
      "lang": "Norwegian Nynorsk",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "lovens lange arm"
    },
    {
      "code": "pl",
      "lang": "Polish",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "tags": [
        "masculine"
      ],
      "word": "wymiar sprawiedliwości"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "brațul legii"
    },
    {
      "code": "ro",
      "lang": "Romanian",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "tags": [
        "neuter"
      ],
      "word": "brațul lung al legii"
    },
    {
      "code": "es",
      "lang": "Spanish",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "word": "brazo de la ley"
    },
    {
      "code": "sv",
      "lang": "Swedish",
      "sense": "influence or effectiveness of law enforcement",
      "tags": [
        "common-gender"
      ],
      "word": "lagens långa arm"
    }
  ],
  "word": "long arm of the law"
}

This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-05-01 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-04-21 using wiktextract (f4fd8c9 and c9440ce). 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.

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