lawman

plural lawmen

1. historicallawA lawspeaker: a declarer of the law.

   Synonyms: lawspeaker

2. historicallawOne of 12 magistrates in certain Danish boroughs of England empowered with soc and sac over their own households.

   Synonyms: lageman, lagman

3. OrkneyShetlandlawThe presiding justice of the supreme court.

   1 more example

   From the twelfth century Shetland had been administered directly by the Norwegian crown through the 'foud', rather than forming part of the patrimony of a great aristocratic estate. The foud appointed 'underfouds' and the Shetlands evolved their own elected officers, a 'lawman' and parish 'lawrightmen', who adjudicated and negotiated the collection of customary taxes and fines on behalf of the local population.

   1983, Paul Thompson, Tony Wailey, Trevor Lummis, History Workshop Series, Living the Fishing, Routledge & Kegan Paul

   Synonyms: lawman-general, lagman

4. rareA man of the law: a lawyer.

   Synonyms: attorney, counsel, abogado, advocate, attorney, avocat, counsel, counselor

5. informalsometimesAn officer of the law: a law-enforcement officer.

   The two lawmen punched his ticket with four well-aimed rifle shots.

   2016, Dusty Richards, Deadly Is the Night, Pinnacle Books, →ISBN, retrieved 08 Dec 2021

   2 more examples

   "Fill your hand, you sonuvabitch," the old lawman cries, clamping the reins of his horse between his teeth and filling his own hands with six-gun and repeater.

   1979 June 25, Richard Schickel, “Show Business: Duke: Images from a Lifetime”, in TIME, archived from the original on 13 May 2011

   Lawmen were then still largely amateurs. They rarely attended training academies or learned the new scientific methods of detections, such as the analysis of fingerprints and blood patterns. Frontier lawmen, in particular, were primarily gunfighters and trackers. They were expected to stop crimes and to catch a known gunman alive if possible, dead if necessary.

   2021 (originally published 2017, adapted 2021), David Grann, Killers of the Flower Moon: Adapted for Younger Readers, pages 16-17

   Synonyms: bobby, cop, 5-O, alphabet, barney, beatsman, bizzie, bluebottle

1. A surname.