Definition of legal
1
: of or relating to law
- She has many legal problems.
2 a
: deriving authority from or founded on law : de jure
- a legal government
b
: having a formal status derived from law often without a basis in actual fact : titular
- a corporation is a legal but not a real person
c
: established by law;
especially
: statutory
- the legal test of mental capacity
- —K. C. Masteller
3
: conforming to or permitted by law or established rules
- The referee said it was a legal play.
- Fishing in this lake is legal.
4
: recognized or made effective by a court of law as distinguished from a court of equity
5
: of, relating to, or having the characteristics of the profession of law or of one of its members
- a bottle … that some legal friend had sent him
- —J. G. Cozzens
6
: created by the constructions of the law
- A legal fiction is something assumed in law to be a fact regardless of the truth of that assumption.
