a. ? Hist. Also law-worth. [f. LAW sb.1 + WORTHY: a modern rendering of OE. þæra laʓa weorðe (þe, etc.), ‘worthy of (i.e., entitled to) the laws (which, etc.).’] a. Of persons: Having a standing in the law-courts; possessed of full legal rights. b. Of things: Within the purview of the law; able to be dealt with by a court of law.
[1066–75. Charter Will. I to Lond., in Stubbs, Select Charters, 83. Ic wylle þat ʓet beon eallra þæra laʓa weorðe þe ʓyt wæran in Eadwerdes dæʓe kynges.]
1818. Hallam, Mid. Ages (1872), II. 277. The strongest proof of his being, as it was called, law-worthy, and possessing a rank.
1857. Toulmin Smith, Parish, 21. The inquiry having been made by the oath of good and law-worth men of the neighbourhood.
1884. W. O’C. Morris, in Contemp. Rev., Feb., 177. This enormous and growing mass of property was not lawworthy under English law. Ibid. (1896), Ireland, x. 333. The claims, however, which in fact approached a joint ownership over millions of acres, continued, as before, to be not law-worthy: they had never been recognized by the State.
