[OE. laʓian, f. laʓu LAW sb.1]
† 1. trans. To ordain (laws); to establish as a law; to render lawful. Obs.
a. 1023. Wulfstan, Hom., li. (Napier), 274/7. Laʓjaþ gode woroldlaʓan and lecʓað þærtoeacan, þæt ure cristendom fæste stande.
a. 1225. Leg. Kath., 1206. As his ahne goddlec lahede hit ant lokede.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. xxvii. (1739), 124. The King hath a power of Lawing and Unlawing in Christ’s Kingdom.
b. To command or impose as law. rare–1.
1855. Bailey, Mystic, 82. The vast Baobab … Within whose cavernous … trunk Meet village senates, lawing peace and war To dusky tribes.
† c. To law it: to act the lawgiver. Obs.
1653. H. Cogan, Scarlet Gown, Ep. Ded. That pragmatique Superintendent Court, and Consistory, which Lords and Lawes it, or would willingly doe so, over the whole world.
d. Sc. (? nonce-use.) To give the law to, control.
1785. Burns, Women’s Minds, iv. But for how lang the flie may stang, Let inclination law that.
2. intr. To go to law, litigate. Also to law it. Also colloq. or dial. in indirect passive.
a. 1550[?]. Hye Way to Spyttel Ho., 799, in Hazl., E. P. P., IV. 59. They that lawe for a debt vntrew.
1581. Mulcaster, Positions, xxxvi. (1887), 138. He will needes lawe it, which careth for no lawe.
1624. Fletcher, Rule a Wife, IV. iii. Ye must law and claw before ye get it.
1712. Arbuthnot, John Bull, II. iii. If we law it on, till Lewis turns honest, I am afraid our credit will run low at Blackwell Hall!
a. 1734. North, Lives, I. 108. There [sc. Ho. of Lords] the knight lawed by himself, for no person opposed him.
1866. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt (1868), 7. People who inherited estates that were lawed about.
quasi-trans. 1742. Fielding, J. Andrews, II. v. Two of my neighbours have been at law about a house, till they have both lawed themselves into a gaol.
b. trans. To go to law with, proceed against in the courts.
1647. Trapp, Comm. 1 Cor. vi. 7. By your litigious lawing one another, you betray a great deal of weaknesse.
1786. Nelson, in Nicolas, Disp. (1845), I. 169. One sends me a challenge; another Laws me: but I keep them all off.
1860. Reade, Cloister & H. (1861), IV. 398. Alas, poor soul! And for what shall I law him?
1870. E. Peacock, Ralf Skirl., II. 117. You can’t law a man ye knaw for a job like that.
3. To mutilate (an animal) so as to render it incapable of doing mischief. Almost exclusively spec. to EXPEDITATE (a dog). Obs. exc. Hist.
1534. G. Ferrers, trans. Carta de Foresta, in Gt. Charter, etc. § 6 (1542), B ij b. He whose dog is not lawed [orig. expeditatus] & so founde shalbe amercyed [etc.].
1610. W. Folkingham, Art of Survey, III. iv. 71. Foote-geld implies a Priuiledge to keepe Dogges within the Forrest not expeditated or lawed sans controule.
1616. Rich Cabinet, 54 b. His own [cattle] are so ringed, and yoakt, and lawde, that they neuer trespasse on any other man.
1866. Chamb. Jrnl., XXVIII. 26. They were forbidden to take anything for lawing dogs.
1886. Contemp. Rev., XX. 505. The cur which the husbandman kept might only exist if he had been ‘lawed,’ or so mutilated, that the idea of poaching was for ever banished from his mind.
