legislate

UK/ˈlɛd͡ʒɪsˌleɪt/US/ˈlɛd͡ʒɪsˌleɪt/

verbB2+Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #11,852 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: legislated, legislating, legislates

To legislate is to make laws. Legislate against it, legislate for the change.

It takes for or against, and it is what a parliament does rather than a government. To legislate is easy and to enforce is not, which is why so many laws are dead letters.

Definitions of legislate

1verblegislateTo make laws.B2+
“They chose to legislate rather than wait for the courts.”

legislate is a lawmaking.

Where it comes from

Legislate is a back-formation from legislation, from Latin lex, a law, plus latum, carried.

a back-formation from legislation, legislator.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

legislate in the wild

Although it is empowered to legislate on matters that are not addressed in the Baha'i holy writings, the Universal House of Justice has rarely exercised this function.
Universal House of Justice
The Social Contract argued against the idea that monarchs were divinely empowered to legislate.
The Social Contract
With its enactment, Westminster relinquished nearly all of its authority to legislate for the Dominions, effectively making them de jure sovereign nations.
Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942
With the enactment of the Adoption Act, the British Parliament could no longer legislate for the Commonwealth without the express request and consent of the Australian Parliament.
Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1942
Bryden, however, argued that since the federal government had no laws covering the matter the province was allowed to step in and legislate on it.
Union Colliery Co of British Columbia v Bryden

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From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

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