Outlaw

Part of speech: noun, verb

Pronunciation: /ˈaʊt.lɔː/

Definitions

1. A person who has committed crimes and is hiding from authorities ; to legally declare someone is no longer protected by law and can be punished without legal penalties
2. An individual living outside legal boundaries to evade arrest ; to formally strip a person of legal rights and protections
3. One who defies the law and is pursued by law enforcement ; to officially remove legal safeguards from a person, making them punishable without recourse

Etymology: Old English "ūtlaga" was a legal term for a man who had been stripped of the law's protection. Anyone could kill him without penalty, and he could not sue for justice. The word is built from "ūt," meaning "out," and "lagu," meaning "law," so an outlaw was literally someone put outside the law. English inherited the idea from the Vikings, whose "útlagi" carried the same sense; Old English had borrowed it from Old Norse, which is why the English word and its Icelandic cousin still look so alike. The earliest English form, "outlawe," appears in Middle English, when the word was used for people placed beyond the law as punishment, often for serious crimes or for refusing to appear in court. Over time it shifted from a formal legal status to the familiar picture of a fugitive hiding in the woods, which is the sense the word carries today.

Synonyms: criminal, fugitive, bandit, renegade, lawbreaker

Antonyms: law-abiding citizen, conformist, upholder