noun
- a lawless person or habitual criminal, especially one who is a fugitive from the law.
- a person, group, or thing excluded from the benefits and protection of the law.
- a person under sentence of outlawry.
- a person who refuses to be governed by the established rules or practices of any group; rebel; nonconformist: one of the outlaws of country music.
- Chiefly Western U.S.
- a horse that cannot be broken; a mean, intractable horse.
- any rogue animal.
verb (used with object)
- to make unlawful or illegal: The Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating beverages in the U.S.
- to deprive of thebenefits and protection of the law: Members of guerrilla bands who refused to surrender were outlawed.
- to prohibit: to outlaw smoking in a theater.
- to remove from legal jurisdiction; deprive of legal force.
adjective
- of, relating to, or characteristic of an outlaw.
noun
- (formerly) a person excluded from the law and deprived of its protection
- any fugitive from the law, esp a habitual transgressor
- a wild or untamed beast
verb (tr)
- to put (a person) outside the law and deprive of its protection
- (in the US) to deprive (a contract) of legal force
- to ban
n.Old English utlaga “one put outside the law” (and thereby deprived of its benefits and protections), from a Scandinavian source, cf. Old Norse utlagi (n.) “outlaw,” from utlagr (adj.) “outlawed, banished,” from ut “out” (see out (adv.)) + *lagu, plural of lag “law” (see law). [G]if he man to deaðe gefylle, beo he þonne utlah [“Laws of Edward & Guthrum,” c.924] Meaning “one living a lawless life” is first recorded 1880. As an adjective from Old English. v.Old English utlagian “to outlaw, banish,” from utlaga “an outlaw” (see outlaw (n.)). Related: Outlawed; outlawing.