Unlawful

a. and adv. [UN-¹ 7, 11 b.]

  1.  Contrary to law; prohibited by law; illegal.

a. 1300.  Cursor M., 29516. Þat cursing tald vn-laghful es Þat ordir wantes and right-settnes O lagh.

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., IX. xxvi. (Bodl. MS.). It was iholde vnlawefulle to goo more wey one þe seturdaie.

c. 1430.  Syr Gener. (Roxb.), 3024. Here ye thes vnlawful reasouns Mi lord the Soudon seith vs among.

1475.  Cov. Leet Bk., 418. Vnlaufull & hurtfull ordenaunces made by the seid dyers. Ibid. Vnlaufull othes and wrytynges.

1515.  in W. H. Turner, Select. Rec. Oxford (1880), 13. William Flemynge usith … unlawfull mesures, that is to seye, an unlawfull yerde.

1581.  [see next].

a. 1613.  Overbury, A Wife, etc. (1614), B 4 b. Some lawfull things to be auoyded are, When they occasion of vnlawfull be.

1652.  Needham, trans. Selden’s Mare Cl., 449. Anie other prohibited places and unlawful Ports whatsoever, in the Kingdoms of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway.

1667–8.  Marvell, Corr., Wks. (Grosart), II. 239. The unlawfull meetings of Papists and Non-conformists.

1805.  Southey, Madoc in W., xv. 131. Becket did excommunicate thy sire For his unlawful marriage.

1891.  Farrar, Darkn. & Dawn, liv. A fresh edict … which declared Christianity to be an unlawful religion.

  b.  Unlawful assembly: (see quots. 1581, 1841).

1485.  Rolls of Parlt., VI. 287/2. Maintenance, Imbracerie, Riotts, or unlawfull Assemblie.

1549.  Act Edw. IV., c. 5 (heading), An Acte for the punyshment of Unlawfull Assemblyes.

1581.  Lambarde, Eiren., I. xix. 175. An Vnlawful Assembly is, ye company of three persons (or more) gathered togither to doe … an vnlawfull acte.

1651.  Hobbes, Leviath., II. xxii. 123. It is not a set number that makes the Assembly Unlawfull, but such a number [etc.].

1664.  Act 16 Chas. II., c. iv. 9. Every person who shall … suffer any such Conventicle, unlawfull Assembly or Meeteing aforesaid to be held in his or her House.

1714.  Act Geo. I., c. 5. 5. Any such unlawful, riotous, and tumultuous Assembly.

1841.  Penny Cycl., XX. 17/1. It is an unlawful assembly when great numbers of people meet together with such circumstances of behaviour as to raise the fears of their fellow-subjects, and to endanger the public peace.

  c.  Of offspring: Illegitimate.

1606.  Shaks., Ant. & Cl., III. vi. 7. All the vnlawfull issue, that their Lust Since then hath made betweene them.

1833.  Disraeli, Cont. Flem., I. i. The unlawful children of ignorance and expediency.

  2.  Not permissible; contrary to moral standards or spiritual principles.

c. 1475[?].  Knight Curtesy, 120 (Ritson). The knight … Which with your lady was talkinge Of love unlawlull pryvely.

1526.  Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 45. They profyte moche in y^e refreynynge … of vnlawfull pleasures.

1590.  Shaks., Com. Err., V. i. 51. Hath not else his eye Stray’d his affection in vnlawfull loue? Ibid. (1601), All’s Well, III. v. 73. May be the amorous Count solicites her In the vnlawfull purpose.

1641.  J. Jackson, True Evang. T., III. 206. That Anabaptisticall … tenet … that all warres were utterly unlawfull under the Gospel.

1755.  Johnson, Rambler, No. 178, ¶ 4. The allurements of unlawful pleasure.

1827.  Lytton, Falkland, 81. How fearful, how selfish, how degrading, is unlawful love!

1849.  Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vii. II. 244. He cannot be accused of having deviated from the path of right in search … of unlawful pleasure.

  3.  Of persons: Not obeying the law; acting or ruling illegally.

1429.  Rolls of Parlt., IV. 344/1. Unlaweful hunters of Forestes, Parkes or Warennes.

1536[?].  Anne Boleyn, in Harl. Misc. (1809), III. 62. Mine offence being so lawfully proved, your Grace is at liberty … to execute worthy punishment on me as an unlawful wife.

1581.  Satir. Poems Reform., xliv. 319. Moyses forbad ȝou to giue the nichbouris vyf To the vnlauchful husbandis cumpanie.

1603.  Shaks., Meas. for M., IV. ii. 16. I haue beene an vnlawfull bawd.

1643.  Prynne, Sov. Power Parl., I. (ed. 2), 49. These Lawes … are the Acts of the … Courts themselves, which are lawfull; not of the usurping King, who is unlawfull.

1859.  Dickens, T. Two Cities, II. i. The unlawful opener of a letter was put to death.

  4.  Contrary to rule; irregular.

1729.  T. Cooke, Tales, etc., 208. The same Word in the Greek and Latin likewise has unlawful Degrees of Comparison.

1836.  J. R. Major, Guide Grk. Trag., 117. In Iambic verse it is unlawful to divide the anapæst between two words.

  † 5.  As adv. = next. Obs.

1477.  in Surtees Misc. (1890), 27. William Bacon holdes ij dogges unlawefull.