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A law made by husbandmen respecting rural affairs; a rustic or local law or by-law. [Written also byrlaw, birlie, birley.]

A law enacted to provide for the regulation and supervision of investment companies in order to protect the public against companies that do not intend to do a fair and honest business and that offer investments that do not promise a fair return; -- so called because the promises made by some investment companies are a…

See under Law.

The brother of one's husband or wife; also, the husband of one's sister; sometimes, the husband of one's wife's sister.

A local or subordinate law; a private law or regulation made by a corporation for its own government. There was likewise a law to restrain the by-laws, or ordinances of corporations. Bacon. The law or institution; to which are added two by-laws, as a comment upon the general law. Addison.

To treat with cruel playfulness, as a cat treats a mouse; to abuse. [Obs.] Birch.

To fight and scratch. C. Smart.

Anything resembling the claw of an animal, as the curved and forked end of a hammer for drawing nails.

A flatterer or sycophant. [Obs.] "Take heed of these clawbacks." Latimer.

Furnished with claws. N. Grew.

Destitute of claws.

A salad made of sliced cabbage.

The law that the force exerted between two electric or magnetic charges is directly proportional to the product of the charges and inversely to the square of the distance between them.

Same as Cyprus. Milton.

The wife of one's son.

An American grape, with compact bunches of small, amber-colored berries, sweet and of a good flavor.

A tribe of Indians formerly inhabiting the valley of the Delaware River, but now mostly located in the Indian Territory.

In any animal, esp. of the Herbivora, a rudimentary claw or small hoof not reaching the ground. Some cut off the dewclaws [of greyhounds]. J. H. Walsh.

The father of one's husband or wife; -- correlative to son-in- law and daughter-in-law.

A crack or breach; a gap or fissure; a defect of continuity or cohesion; as, a flaw in a knife or a vase. This heart Shall break into a hundered thousand flaws. Shak.