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lawe

verb

Etymology

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”).

  1. derived from lagu — “law”

Definitions

  1. To cut off the claws and balls of (e.g. a dog's forefeet, to hinder it from hunting).

    • They were enveloped in forms, and easily evaded ; like a lawed dog, too mutilated to catch their game.
    • The Vicar of Bacford for the same John Miller there for the same Beatrice de Coghull for one dog not lawed.

  2. Obsolete spelling of law (“system of regulations etc.”).

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for lawe. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA