unlawful

unlawful, illegal, illegitimate, illicit are comparable when they mean contrary to, prohibited by, or not in accordance with law or the law. Otherwise than this negation in character, the words in general carry the same differences in implications and connotations as the affirmative adjectives discriminated at LAWFUL. But there are a few recognizable differences.

Illegitimate tends to be more narrowly used than legitimate: its most common application is to children born out of wedlock or to a relation which leads to such a result

{

the illegitimate son of the Duke

}

{

their union was illegitimate

}

but it is occasionally referred to something that is not proper according to the rules (as of logic) or to the authorities or to precedent

{

your inference is illegitimate

}

{

it is illegitimate to suppose a chasm between the brute facts of physical nature . . . and the most abstract principles— Alexander

}

{

I am far from thinking, with some modern theoretic purists, that it is illegitimate in painting to play on the power of association— Binyon

}

Illicit is used much more widely than illegitimate: it may imply a lack of conformity to the provisions of a law intended to regulate the performance, the carrying on, or the execution of something that comes under the law of state or of church

{

illicit liquor traffic

}

{

an illicit marriage according to the Church may still be a legal marriage from the point of view of the State

}

but it is also applied to something that is obtained, done, or maintained unlawfully, illegally, or illegitimately

{

most persons . . . have long believed that happiness, being as they suspect somehow illicit at best, must have its locus beyond ourselves, beyond this world— Edman

}

{

the tradition that illicit love affairs are at once vicious and delightful— Shaw

}

{

the . . . monk who loved Virgil had to study him with an illicit candle— Quiller-Couch

}

Analogous words: iniquitous, nefarious, flagitious (see vicious)

Antonyms: lawful

Contrasted words: *due, rightful, condign