| a. | 1. | Conformable to law; allowed by law; legitimate; competent. | |||
| 2. | Constituted or authorized by law; rightful;
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| Adj. | 1. | lawful - conformable to or allowed by law; "lawful methods of dissent" Antonyms: unlawful - contrary to or prohibited by or defiant of law; "unlawful measures"; "unlawful money"; "unlawful hunters" |
| 2. | lawful - according to custom or rule or natural law Synonyms: rule-governed, orderly | |
| 3. | lawful - having a legally established claim; "the legitimate heir"; "the true and lawful king" | |
| 4. | lawful - authorized, sanctioned by, or in accordance with law; "a legitimate government" Synonyms: licit, legitimate |
LAWFUL. That which is not forbidden by law. Id omne licitum est, quod non est legibus prohibitum, quamobrem, quod, lege permittente, fit, poenam non meretur. To be valid a contract must be lawful.
actionable, admissible, allowed, applicable, authentic, authoritative, balanced, binding, bona fide, candid, card-carrying, cogent, competent, consistent, de jure, defensible, deserved, dinkum, due, equitable, even, evenhanded, fair, fair and square, fit, following the letter, genuine, good, honest, honest-to-God, inartificial, judicial, juridical, just, justiciable, justifiable, justified, kosher, lawmaking, legislative, legit, legitimized, level, licit, lifelike, literal, logical, meet, meet and right, merited, natural, naturalistic, original, permitted, proper, pure, real, realistic, right, right and proper, rightful, sanctionable, sanctioned, self-consistent, simon-pure, simple, sincere, solid, sound, square, statutory, sterling, substantial, sufficient, sure-enough, true to life, true to nature, true to reality, unadulterated, unaffected, unassumed, unassuming, uncolored, unconcocted, uncopied, uncounterfeited, undisguised, undisguising, undistorted, unexaggerated, unfabricated, unfanciful, unfeigned, unfeigning, unfictitious, unflattering, unimagined, unimitated, uninvented, unpretended, unpretending, unqualified, unromantic, unsimulated, unspecious, unsynthetic, unvarnished, valid, verbal, verbatim, veridical, verisimilar, warrantable, warranted, weighty, well-founded, well-grounded, within the law, word-for-word