Each Play button uses your device's default local English voice, or a natural local fallback. The selected voice name appears after playback. This is synthesized speech, not a source recording.
A putative law dictating that one serves one's own interest to the extent that one can, in any situation where legal authority is absent or generally ignored; self-interested behaviour that emerges in the absence of law; lawlessness.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: figuratively
Examples
- 1938, Proceedings of the Sixth Conference of Teachers of International Law and Related Subjects, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, page 111, In the next war there will be no international law or 'comity of nations' but merely the law of the jungle, and of primeval man—each for himself and the devil take the next man.
- 1983, The Law of the Sea, School of Law, Duke University, page 57, To bring order to this law of the jungle at sea was a particular reason for the Law of the Sea Conference, especially insofar as the United States was concerned.
- 1988, The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea in Southeast Asia: Problems of Implementation, Volume 1, Southeast Asian Programme on Ocean Law, Policy, and Management, page 2, For small countries such as Singapore, they would have the most to lose if the law of the jungle were to prevail.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see law, jungle.
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Topics: fiction, literature, media, publishing
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Meaning relationships
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
Popularized by Rudyard Kipling in his book, The Jungle Book (1894), in which he used the term in the literal sense of a legal code governing the behavior of his anthropomorphized animals in an Indian jungle. Note also the (possibly derived) colloquial sense of jungle (“a place where people behave ruthlessly, unconstrained by law or morality”).
Across languages
Translations
26 source translations are retained for this English entry.
-
Arabic:
شريعَة الغاب
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Arabic:
قانون الغابَة
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Chinese Mandarin:
叢林法則 /丛林法则
(cónglín fǎzé)
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Chinese Mandarin:
弱肉強食 /弱肉强食
(ruòròuqiángshí)
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Dutch:
wet van de sterkste
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Finnish:
viidakon laki
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
French:
loi de la jungle
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
French:
loi du plus fort
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Galician:
lei da selva
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
German:
Faustrecht
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Hungarian:
a dzsungel törvénye
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Hungarian:
farkasok törvénye
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Hungarian:
farkastörvény
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Indonesian:
hukum rimba
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Italian:
legge della giungla
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Japanese:
弱肉強食
(jakuniku kyōshoku)
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Korean:
약육강식
(yagyukgangsik)
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Malay:
undang-undang rimba
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Polish:
prawo dżungli
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Polish:
prawo pięści
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Polish:
wilcze prawo
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Portuguese:
lei da selva
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Romanian:
legea junglei
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Russian:
зако́н джу́нглей
(zakón džúnglej)
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Spanish:
ley de la selva
— putative law of a lawless situation
-
Swedish:
djungelns lag
— putative law of a lawless situation
