statute book

noun

: the whole body of legislation of a given jurisdiction whether or not published as a whole
usually used in plural

Examples of statute book in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web The government is uniquely vulnerable to this kind of drift because our laws and regulations comprise vast amounts of messy, unstructured data scattered across countless different statute books and tomes of case law. Carolyn Parent, Fortune, 19 Jan. 2024 Garland had gotten deep into the weeds on the charge in previous briefings, cracking open his statute book and asking numerous questions about the risks of it being overturned. Aaron C. Davis, Washington Post, 19 June 2023 The Logan Act is the appendix of U.S. statute books, a law that serves no useful purpose. The Editorial Board, WSJ, 19 May 2020 If withholding military aid to the government of Ukraine were on the statute books as a crime, Trump couldn’t do it. Fintan O’Toole, The New York Review of Books, 30 Jan. 2020 France is the first European country to put the European Union’s Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market on its statute books, taking effect at the end of October. Kim Willsher, Los Angeles Times, 17 Oct. 2019 Indeed, many African governments have restricted the basic freedoms of their citizens by using colonial era legislation still on the statute books. Jonathan Fisher, Quartz Africa, 2 Nov. 2019 But the timing was particularly inauspicious, as tech regulation edges closer to becoming part of the statute book in Europe. Alex Webb | Bloomberg, Washington Post, 17 Apr. 2019 But the death penalty is still on the statute book. The Economist, 4 July 2019

These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'statute book.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Word History

First Known Use

1823, in the meaning defined above

Time Traveler
The first known use of statute book was in 1823

Dictionary Entries Near statute book

Cite this Entry

“Statute book.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/statute%20book. Accessed 24 Apr. 2024.

Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!