law-abiding

English

Adjective

law-abiding (comparative more law-abiding, superlative most law-abiding)

1. Obeying the laws of society; not a lawbreaker; without a criminal record.

   The law-abiding citizens have nothing to fear from government surveillance... unless the government begins to break the law.

   • 1980, Robert Dougall, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 379:

     In all smuggling places ghost stories abound. Can it be that they were invented to keep law-abiding folk behind closed doors at night, when the deeds were being done?

   • 2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     “For any decent, law-abiding citizen, there is no honour in this. None at all. You are a bad man, Mr Goodie. And, worst of all, a bad dad. A very bad dad.” That hit Gilbert like a ton of bricks. He looked over to his son with tears in his eyes, as the judge announced the sentence. “Gilbert Goodie, I sentence you to ten years in prison!”

Antonyms

• lawbreaking
• lawless

Translations

obeying the laws

• Arabic: please add this translation if you can
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 守法的 (zh) (shǒufǎ de)

• Danish: lovlydig (da)
• Dutch: gezagsgetrouw (nl)
• Finnish: lainkuuliainen (fi)
• French: respectueux de la loi m
• German: gesetzestreu (de), das Gesetz beachtend
• Greek: νομοταγής (el) (nomotagís)
• Hindi: please add this translation if you can
• Hungarian: törvénytisztelő (hu)
• Italian: rispettoso della legge
• Polish: praworządny (pl)
• Portuguese: cumpridor da lei m, obediente à lei
• Russian: законопослу́шный (ru) (zakonoposlúšnyj)
• Spanish: obediente de la ley, respetuoso de la ley
• Swedish: laglydig (sv)
• Ukrainian: законослухня́ний (zakonosluxnjányj)