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Not written; not reduced to writing; oral; as, unwritten agreements.

A paper unwritten; a paper without marks or characters a blank ballot; -- especially, a paper on which are to be inserted designated items of information, for which spaces are left vacant; a bland form. The freemen signified their approbation by an inscribed vote, and their dissent by a blank. Palfrey.…

An ancient Irish or Scotch judge. Brehon laws, the ancient Irish laws, -- unwritten, like the common law of England. They were abolished by statute of Edward III.

The unwritten code of moral principles regulating the actions of the Japanese knighthood, or Samurai; the chivalry of Japan.

Long-established practice, considered as unwritten law, and resting for authority on long consent; usage. See Usage, and Prescription.

Consecutive speech, either written or unwritten, on a given line of thought; speech; treatise; dissertation; sermon, etc.; as, the preacher gave us a long discourse on duty.

to enroll men for service; to enroll a decree or a law; also, reflexively, to enlist. An unwritten law of common right, so engraven in the hearts of our ancestors, and by them so constantly enjoyed and claimed, as that it needed not enrolling. Milton. All the citizen capable of bearing arms enrolled themselves. Presco…

The unwritten or oral delivery of information, opinions, doctrines, practices, rites, and customs, from father to son, or from ancestors to posterity; the transmission of any knowledge, opinions, or practice, from forefathers to descendants by oral communication, without written memorials.

laws deriving their force from express legislative enactment, as contradistinguished from unwritten, or common, law. See the Note under Law, and Common law, under Common, a.