<B>lawn tennis,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a game in which a ball is hit back and forth with a racket over a low net. It is played on an open court, sometimes of grass. The game of tennis, as commonly played today, is lawn tennis. </DL>
<A NAME="lawny">
<B>lawny</B> (1), adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> like a lawn; level and covered with smooth turf. <BR> <I>Ex. lawny slopes.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="lawny">
<B>lawny</B> (2), adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> made of or like the cloth lawn. </DL>
<A NAME="lawofaverages">
<B>law of averages,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>(Statistics.) <B>=law of large numbers.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>the usual way events turn out or are determined or the customary way people act. <BR> <I>Ex. The law of averages can generally be counted upon to catch up with the cheat eventually.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="lawofcontradiction">
<B>law of contradiction,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Logic.) the law that states that a thing cannot be and not be at the same time or that no statement can be both true and false. </DL>
<A NAME="lawofdiminishingreturns">
<B>law of diminishing returns,</B> <B>=diminishing returns.</B></DL>
<A NAME="lawofgravitation">
<B>law of gravitation,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Physics.) statement of the principle that two bodies attract each other with a force directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them. </DL>
<A NAME="lawoflargenumbers">
<B>law of large numbers,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Statistics.) the theorem that a large number of items chosen at random from a population are bound, on the average, to have the characteristics of the population. </DL>
<A NAME="lawofmoses">
<B>law of Moses,</B> <B>=Pentateuch.</B></DL>
<A NAME="lawofnations">
<B>law of nations,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B><B>=international law.</B> <DD><B> 2. </B>(in ancient Roman use) the rules common to the law of all nations. </DL>
<A NAME="lawofparsimony">
<B>law of parsimony,</B> <B>=Occam's Razor.</B></DL>
<A NAME="lawofthejungle">
<B>law of the jungle,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> circumstance that prescribes certain primitive, harsh, or otherwise distasteful conduct to survive. <BR> <I>Ex. righteously condemned it as "the law of the jungle" under which "the strong swallow the weak" (Wall Street Journal).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="lawoftheland">
<B>law of the land,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> law, especially law or accepted rules prevailing in a certain country, profession, or business. <BR> <I>Ex. projections of a moral principle to which the Supreme Court has given increasing weight as the law of the land (New York Times).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="lawofthemedesandpersians">
<B>law of the Medes and Persians,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> a law that cannot be changed; something unalterable (with allusion to Daniel 6:12). </DL>
<A NAME="lawofthesea">
<B>law of the sea,</B><DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>accepted customs of conduct for behavior of seamen or actions of ships' masters and owners. <DD><B> 2. </B>maritime law, especially international maritime law. <BR> <I>Ex. The International Convention on the Law of the Sea (New York Times).</I> <DD><B> 3. </B>what is dictated as necessary to survive at sea. </DL>
<B>lawrencium, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a radioactive, metallic chemical element of the actinide series. Lawrencium is short-lived and artificially produced by bombarding californium with boron ions. </DL>
<A NAME="lawrentian">
<B>Lawrentian, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or characteristic of either the English novelist and poet D. H. Lawrence (1885-1930) or his writings, or the English adventurer T. E. Lawrence (1888-1935) or his writings or adventures. </DL>
<A NAME="lawsofmanu">
<B>Laws of Manu,</B> <B>=Code of Manu.</B></DL>
<A NAME="lawsoncriterion">
<B>Lawson criterion,</B><DL COMPACT><DD> (Nuclear Physics.) a criterion that establishes the point at which a fusion reaction becomes self-sustaining, formulated by British physicist J. D. Lawson in the 1960's. </DL>
<B>lawsuit, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> a case in a law court started by one person to claim something from another; application to a court by one person to compel another to do him justice. </DL>
<A NAME="lawyer">
<B>lawyer, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a person who knows the laws and gives advice about matters of the law or acts for another person in a law court. <DD><B> 2. </B>a scribe; expounder of the Mosaic Law (in the New Testament, Luke 10:25). <DD><B> 3. </B><B>=burbot.</B> <DD><B> 4. </B>(Australian Dialect.) a long bramble. </DL>
<A NAME="lawyered">
<B>lawyered, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> having a lawyer; being represented by a lawyer. <BR> <I>Ex. If you're not well known, connected, or lawyered--well, no juice (Washington Monthly).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="lawyering">
<B>lawyering, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the state or condition of being a lawyer. <BR> <I>Ex. John W. Davis ... left Wall Street in 1924 to become the Democratic candidate for President; he lost and went back to lawyering (Time).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="lawyerish">
<B>lawyerish, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> like that of a lawyer. <BR> <I>Ex. lawyerish mannerisms.</I> </DL>
<A NAME="lawyerism">
<B>lawyerism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the influence, or principles of lawyers. </DL>
<A NAME="lawyerlike">
<B>lawyerlike, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of or characteristic of a lawyer or lawyers. <BR> <I>Ex. Writing slows us down and makes us more grammatical, more lawyerlike (Saturday Review).</I> </DL>
<A NAME="lawyerly">
<B>lawyerly, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD> of lawyers; lawyerlike. </DL>
<A NAME="lax">
<B>lax, </B>adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>not firm or tight; slack. <BR> <I>Ex. The package was tied so loosely that the cord was lax.</I> (SYN) relaxed, flabby, loose. <DD><B> 2. </B>not strict; careless. <BR> <I>Ex. Don't become lax about the schedule you have set for studying. The states have been lax in passing safety regulations requiring seat belts in school buses (New York Times).</I> (SYN) negligent, remiss. <DD><B> 3. </B>not exact or precise; vague. <BR> <I>Ex. in a lax way of speaking (Joseph Butler).</I> <DD><B> 4. </B>loose in morals. <BR> <I>Ex. Richard [Cromwell] was known to be lax and godless in his conduct (John Richard Green).</I> <DD><B> 5. </B>loose in texture; loosely cohering or compacted, as of tissue, stone, or soil. <DD><B> 6. </B>(Botany.) loose or open; not compact, as some panicles are. <DD><B> 7. </B>(Phonetics.) pronounced with the muscles of the articulating organs relatively relaxed; wide. <BR> <I>Ex. lax vowels.</I> <DD><B> 8. </B>acting easily; loose, especially of the bowels. adv. <B>laxly.</B> noun <B>laxness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="laxation">
<B>laxation, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>a loosening or relaxing. <DD><B> 2. </B>a being loosened or relaxed. <DD><B> 3. </B>a mild purgative; laxative. </DL>
<A NAME="laxative">
<B>laxative, </B>noun, adjective.<DL COMPACT><DD><I>noun </I> a medicine that speeds the emptying of the bowels. <DD><I>adj. </I> <B>1. </B>helping to empty the bowels; mildly purgative. <DD><B> 2. </B>having the property of relaxing. <DD><B> 3. </B>(Obsolete.) unable to contain one's speech or emotions. <BR> <I>Ex. Fellowes of practis'd and most laxative tongues (Ben Jonson).</I> adv. <B>laxatively.</B> noun <B>laxativeness.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="laxism">
<B>laxism, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD> the favoring of lax views or interpretation. n., adj. <B>laxist.</B> </DL>
<A NAME="laxity">
<B>laxity, </B>noun.<DL COMPACT><DD><B> 1. </B>lax condition or quality; lax conduct. <BR> <I>Ex. moral laxity. The newspapers accused local police of laxity in dealing with gamblers.</I> <DD><B> 2. </B>slackness or want of tension, especially in muscular or nervous fibers. <DD><B> 3. </B>looseness, especially of the bowels. </DL>
