Arbitrary

a.	1.	Depending on will or discretion; not governed by any fixed rules; as, an arbitrary decision; an arbitrary punishment. It was wholly arbitrary in them to do so. - Jer. Taylor. Rank pretends to fix the value of every one, and is the most arbitrary of all things. - Landor.
	2.	Exercised according to one's own will or caprice, and therefore conveying a notion of a tendency to abuse the possession of power. Arbitrary power is most easily established on the ruins of liberty abused licentiousness. - Washington.
	3.	Despotic; absolute in power; bound by no law; harsh and unforbearing; tyrannical; as, an arbitrary prince or government. Arbitrary constant (Math.) a quantity of function that is introduced into the solution of a problem, and to which any value or form may at will be given, so that the solution may be made to meet special requirements. Arbitrary quantity (Math.) one to which any value can be assigned at pleasure.

Adj.

1.

arbitrary - based on or subject to individual discretion or preference or sometimes impulse or caprice; "an arbitrary decision"; "the arbitrary rule of a dictator"; "an arbitrary penalty"; "of arbitrary size and shape"; "an arbitrary choice"; "arbitrary division of the group into halves" Antonyms: nonarbitrary, unarbitrary - not subject to individual determination

ARBITRARY. What depends on the will of the judge, not regulated or established by law. Bacon (Aphor. 8) says, Optima lex quae minimum relinquit arbitrio judicis et (Aph. 46) optimus judex, qui mi nimum sibi
     2. In all well adjusted systems of law every thing is regulated, and nothing arbitrary can be allowed; but there is a discretion which is sometimes allowed by law which leaves the judge free to act as he pleases to a certain extent. See Discretion

LAW, ARBITRARY. An arbitrary law is one made by the legislator simply because he wills it, and is not founded in the nature of things; such law, for example, as the tariff law, which may be high or low. This term is used in opposition to immutable.

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