lawfully

English

Etymology

From Middle English lawefully, lawfulliche, lawefulliche; equivalent to lawful +‎ -ly.

Adverb

lawfully (comparative more lawfully, superlative most lawfully)

1. Conforming to the law; legally.

   Synonyms: licitly; see also Thesaurus:lawfully

   • 1781, C. Bathurst, The Modern Part of an Universal History From the Earliest Accounts to the Present Time, volume 12, page 264:

     This grand ceremony was immediately followed by a proclamation expreſsly forbidding the Abyſſine clergy, monks, and prieſts, to perform any prieſtly functions till they were previouſly examined and approved by the patriarch ; there being ſome reaſon to doubt whether they had been lawfully examined.

   • 2009 September 26, The Associated Press, “Kuwaiti Ordered Released From Guantánamo Bay”, in The New York Times‎^[1]:

     He was sent to Guantánamo in 2002, and Judge Kollar-Kotelly found that from the beginning of his stay, “there is no evidence in the record that anyone directed any allegations toward al-Rabiah nor any indication that interrogators believed al-Rabiah had engaged in any conduct that made him lawfully detainable.”

Related terms

• lawful

Middle English

Adverb

lawfully

1. alternative form of lawefully