Standard Lemma guide
Definitions and examples are grouped by meaning. Pronunciation, history, word forms, translations, descendants, synonyms, antonyms, derived terms, and related words appear whenever the source provides them.
Sound
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.
No pronunciation record was provided for this word.
noun
Obsolete spelling of law (“system of regulations etc.”).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: alt-of, countable, obsolete, uncountable
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
verb
To cut off the claws and balls of (e.g. a dog's forefeet, to hinder it from hunting).
Definition source: English Wiktionary via Wiktextract
Usage: transitive
No example sentence was provided for this meaning.
Synonyms: none provided
Antonyms: none provided
History
Perhaps from law because the practice was ordained by law. Few dictionaries comment directly on the etymology of the sense, but several (which also spell the infinitive law) group it with the other verb and noun senses derived from Old English lagu (“law”).
