/owt"law'/ , n.
1. a lawless person or habitual criminal, esp. one who is a fugitive from the law.
2. a person, group, or thing excluded from the benefits and protection of the law.
3. a person under sentence of outlawry.
4. a person who refuses to be governed by the established rules or practices of any group; rebel; nonconformist: one of the outlaws of country music.
5. Chiefly Western U.S.
a. a horse that cannot be broken; a mean, intractable horse.
b. any rogue animal.
v.t.
6. to make unlawful or illegal: The Eighteenth Amendment outlawed the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating beverages in the U.S.
7. to deprive of thebenefits and protection of the law: Members of guerrilla bands who refused to surrender were outlawed.
8. to prohibit: to outlaw smoking in a theater.
9. to remove from legal jurisdiction; deprive of legal force.
adj.
10. of, pertaining to, or characteristic of an outlaw.
[ bef. 1150; ME outlawe, OE utlaga utlagi one outside the protection of the law; see OUT, LAW 1 ]
Syn. 1. desperado, bandit, brigand. 8. proscribe, ban, forbid.