Contents -AUTHOR INDEX -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Mawson, C.O.S., ed. (1870–1938). Roget’s International Thesaurus. 1922.

Class V. Words Releasing to the Voluntary Powers
Division (II) Intersocial Volition
Section I. General Intersocial Volition

738. [Absence of Authority] Laxity.

   NOUN:LAXITY; laxness, looseness, slackness; toleration (lenity) [See Lenity]; freedom [See Freedom].
  ANARCHY, interregnum; relaxation; loosening &c. v.; remission; dead letter, brutum fulmen [L.], misrule; license, licentiousness; insubordination (disobedience) [See Disobedience]; mob rule, mob law, mobocracy, ochlocracy; lynch law (illegality) [See Illegality], nihilism, reign of violence.
  [DEPRIVATION OF POWER] dethronement, impeachment, deposition, abdication; usurpation.
   VERB:BE LAX &c. adj.; laisser faire [F.], laisser aller [F.]; hold a loose rein; give the reins to, give rope enough, give a loose to [obs.], give a free course to, give free rein to; tolerate; relax; misrule.
  go beyond the length of one’s tether; have one’s -swing, – fling; act without -instructions, – authority; act on one’s own responsibility, usurp authority, undermine the authority of.
  DETHRONE, depose; abdicate.
   ADJECTIVE:LAX, loose; slack; remiss (careless) [See Neglect]; weak.
  RELAXED; licensed; reinless, unbridled; anarchic or anarchical, nihilistic; “agin the government”; unauthorized (unwarranted) [See Undueness]; adespotic, undespotic; not imperious (ruling) [See Authority].
   QUOTATIONS:

1. When the cat’s away the mice will play.—Proverb
2. Pleasant it is for the little tin gods When great Jove nods.—Kipling