scofflaw

English dictionary entry

Meanings

noun
  1. One who habitually violates minor laws or fails to answer trivial court summonses (such as parking tickets).

Pronunciation

/ˈskɔfˌlɔ/ /ˈskɒfˌlɔ/

Word forms

scofflaw scofflaws

Etymology

From scoff + law. Coined simultaneously by Mr Henry Irving Dale and Miss Kate L. Butler for a contest held in Boston in 1923 in which a word for "a lawless drinker of illegally made or illegally obtained liquor" was sought during the Prohibition era.

Related words

This entry uses open data from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA/GFDL). Word forms are used for search and are not indexed as separate pages.