v. phr. To protect one's supposed rights or punish a suspected wrongdoer without reference to a court. An overused expression. When the men of the settlement caught the suspected murderer, they took the law into their own hands and hanged him to a tree. His farm was going to be sold for taxes, but he took the law into his own hands and drove the sheriff away with a shotgun.
Compare: LAW UNTO ONESELF, TAKE THE BIT IN ONE'S MOUTH.