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Relating to expense; regulating expense or expenditure. Bacon. Sumptuary laws or regulations, laws intended to restrain or limit the expenditure of citizens in apparel, food, furniture, etc.; laws which regulate the prices of commodities and the wages of labor; laws which forbid or restrict the use of certain articles,…

sengers has a small open cabin amidships, for their protection against the sun or rain. A sumptuary law of Venice required that gondolas should be painted black, and they are customarily so painted now.

te law, the law as stated in statutes or positive enactments of the legislative body. -- Sumptuary law. See under Sumptuary. -- To go to law, to seek a settlement of any matter by bringing it before the courts of law; to sue or prosecute some one. -- To take, or have, the law of, to bring the law to bear upon; as, t…

Want of wisdom; unwise conduct or action; folly; simplicity; ignorance. Sumptuary laws are among the exploded fallacies which we have outgrown, and we smile at the unwisdom which could except to regulate private habits and manners by statute. J. A. Froude.