Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (UK Und.) a type of criminal activity [OF lei; ult. Lat. legem, law; synon. with lay n.³ (1)].

1552		G. Walker Detection of Vyle and Detestable Use of Dice Play 18: Thus they give their own conveyance the name of cheating law.
1591		Greene Notable Discovery of Coosnage in Grosart (1881–3) X 36: A table of the words of art, vsed in the effecting these base villanies. Wherein is discouered the nature of euery terme, being proper to none but to the professors thereof. 1 High law robbing by the highway side. 2 Sacking law lecherie. 3 Cheting law play at false dice. 4 Cros-biting law cosenage by whores. 5 Cony-catching law cosenage by cards. 6 Versing law cosenage by false gold. 7 Figging law cutting of purses, & picking of pockets. 8 Barnards law a drunken cosenage by cards.
1608		Dekker Belman of London n.p.: [T]he High Law is nothing else but taking a pursse by the High-way-side, so that to bee a good practitioner in this Law▪ a man needes no more but a bold stern look, a good heart, and a good sword.
1641		Brothers of the Blade 6: I might put my selfe into present money; but I doe not approve of the High-way Law.
1937		(ref. to 16C) E.H. Sutherland Professional Thief (1956) 224: The [16C] thieves developed a large number of specialities which at the time were known as ‘laws’ and at present as rackets.

2. (orig. US) constr. with the, the police.

1701		Cibber Love Makes a Man III i: elv.: What is’t pursues you, Sir? clo.: An outcry of Officers; the Law’s at my Heels, Madam.
1827		J. Kenney Spring And Autumn I iii: The law’s at my heels, and I never could run in my life.
1835		‘The Transport’s Complaint’ in Knowing Chaunter 36: I’m nail’d sure enough by the beaks and the law.
1860		‘George Eliot’ Mill on the Floss (1985) II 306: He’d set the law on you – the law’s made to take care o’ raskills.
1883		‘Mark Twain’ Life on the Mississippi (1914) 496: Are you going to give him up to the law?
1893		H. Lawson ‘“Dossing Out” and “Camping”’ in Roderick (1972) 163: The Law came along now and then, and had a careless look at the unemployed in bed.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 88: A billy, wielded by the fearless hand of the Law, cracked him on the head.
1906		Marvel 27 Oct. 383: Would the law draw a pistol on itself?
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 294: The Law was now about to clean up the place.
1925		D. Heyward Porgy (1945) 19: Out with it. I don’t want to have to put the law on you.
1932		I.L. Idriess Flynn of the Inland 84: He caught the glint of a policeman’s cap: the steady eyes of the Law searched his face as he passed.
1946		Mezzrow & Wolfe Really the Blues 266: All I could think of was that the law had nailed Mike and Mackey.
1955		Q. Reynolds Police Headquarters (1956) 167: ‘I’m the law. Put your hands up,’ he yelled.
1962		R. Cook Crust on its Uppers 23: The law thought it had got him down to kiting.
1978		Casey ‘Kid’ Motsisi ‘Riot’ Casey and Co. 82: ‘Come on, woman [...] I’m arresting you.’ She looked up. Beside her stood a khaki-clad, hefty man. The Law!
1984		C. White Life and Times of Little Richard 51: Then I got into trouble with the law.
1999		N. Cohn Yes We have No 232: The law came knocking at 6 a.m.
2000		J.J. Connolly Layer Cake 1: Suddenly a flashlight’s pointed straight in my face [...] It’s the law.
2011		J.J. Connolly Viva La Madness 355: Need to know if the law are coming.
2015		L. McInerney Glorious Heresies 245: ‘Why didn’t you take a stroll down to the sty and tell the Law you’d knocked some junkie’s block off’.
2017		G. Gilmore Headland [ebook] ‘I reckon when I started getting into trouble with the law, that was the first time you relaxed’.

3. with the article deliberately omitted, a police officer; occas. a private detective.

1911		G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 32: All you have got to do is to go ‘to law,’ and you will get it back and the one who takes it will be sent to prison.
1927		D. Hammett ‘$106,000 Blood Money’ Story Omnibus (1966) 334: You’re law, I’m thief. I’m staying on my side of the fence.
1937		E. Anderson Thieves Like Us (1999) 5: Now Laws jumping us here.
1946		G. Gibson Enemy Coast Ahead (1955) 78: I stepped on the gas; how we missed the law I do not know. I remember his lamp going one way and his legs the other.
c.1951		N. Algren ‘Watch Out for Daddy’ in Entrapment (2009) 139: ‘This cop isn’t some two-hundred-pound flatfoot wearin’ a badge’ [...] ‘I’d know he was law all the same, Daddy’.
1956		J. Curtis Look Long Upon a Monkey 186: They had had a long, silent time in the gloomy passage outside the C.I.D. office: Stringy and the two young law.
1962		A. La Guma Walk in the Night (1968) 67: We saw some law going into your place. Heard a rooker got chopped or something.
1970		E. Tidyman Shaft 167: He had wondered if they were mob, not law.
1981		S. Berkoff Decadence in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 9: Odd judge MP and law sniff round the seamy door.
1992		UGK ‘Pocket Full of Stones’ 🎵 Started payin off the laws so I wouldn’t catch a case.
1993		G. Disher Deathdeal [ebook] There was fuck-all law to worry about.
2001		K. Sampson Outlaws (ms.) 10: He won’t tell us who he’s paying off, whether there’s law on board.
2021		T. Pluck Boy from County Hell 43: Ti’Boy’s land was full of law.

4. in attrib. use of sense 3.

1956

‘Raymond Thorp’ Viper 107: It was the easier sale of the stuff [i.e. cannabis] that was directly responsible for the extra law activity.

5. (US prison) a prison warder.

1929		C.G. Givens ‘The Chatter of Guns’ in Sat. Eve. Post 13 Apr.; list extracted in AS VI:2 (1930) 133: Law, the, n. Prison guard.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).
2000		Other Side of the Wall: Prisoner’s Dict. July 🌐 Laws: Correctional officers. (TX).