From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlegislatele‧gis‧late /ˈledʒəsleɪt/ AWL verb [intransitive] 1 LAWto make a law about somethinglegislate on Only Parliament has the power to legislate on national matters.legislate for/against The government has promised to legislate against discrimination. We must legislate for equal pay.legislate to do something We must legislate to control drugs.2 → legislate for something→ See Verb table
Examples from the Corpus
legislate• Should parliament legislate against experiments on animals?• Congress failed to legislate effective handgun controls.• What is more Big Government than legislating effort in athletic competition?• Governments will have to legislate eventually.• We have also legislated five times to transform industrial relations, returning power from militants to ordinary union members.• Thomas Jefferson said that Britain had no right to legislate for its American colonies.• Clearly no government can legislate for such a wide array of circumstances, let alone attempt to enforce such legislation.• The alternative, and it might be effective, would be to legislate for two-tier supervisory boards.• The government was under a lot of public pressure to legislate on equal pay.• This is legislating science at its most pernicious.• States are legislating stricter automobile safety measures for young children.legislate for/against• We will encourage, and if necessary legislate for, banks to treat small businesses fairly by agreeing contracts for services.• We naturally welcome Labour's existing promise to repeal Section 28 and to legislate against discrimination in the workplace.• But neither London nor Hong Kong can legislate for dreams which are no longer capable of realisation.• But, except by private or hybrid Bills, Parliament does not legislate for individual cases.• Unionists want methods of legislating for Northern Ireland to be brought into line with those for the rest of the United Kingdom.• Clearly no government can legislate for such a wide array of circumstances, let alone attempt to enforce such legislation.Origin legislate (1700-1800) legislator 