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Scofflaw Was Created for a Contest
In 1924, a wealthy Massachusetts Prohibitionist named Delcevare King sponsored a contest in which he asked participants to coin an appropriate word to mean "a lawless drinker." King sought a word that would cast violators of Prohibition laws in a light of shame. Two respondents came up independently with the winning word: scofflaw, formed by combining the verb scoff and the noun law. Henry Dale and Kate Butler, also of Massachusetts, split King’s $200 prize. Improbably, despite some early scoffing from language critics, scofflaw managed to pick up steam in English and expand to a meaning that went beyond its Prohibition roots, referring to one who violates any law, not just laws related to drinking.
Examples of scofflaw in a Sentence
Sarah Freishtat, Chicago Tribune, 28 Feb. 2025
Despite the stop-arms, a squad of teens — allegedly including Tuesday’s scofflaw — was able to take a pair of R trains parked on a layup track in Brooklyn on a joyride last month.
—Evan Simko-Bednarski, New York Daily News, 18 Feb. 2025
By the numbers: Under the scofflaw program, the city towed 411 cars that owed nearly $3 million this year.
—Anna Spiegel, Axios, 18 Dec. 2024
Hildebrandt, 63 and retired, spent the past half-century advancing from young library scofflaw to founder of a digital marketing company.
—Neal Rubin, Detroit Free Press, 14 Dec. 2024
See All Example Sentences for scofflaw
Cite this Entry
“Scofflaw.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/scofflaw. Accessed 14 Mar. 2025.
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