Word family noun legality ≠ illegality legalization legalese illegal adjective legal ≠ illegal legalistic verb legalize adverb legally ≠ illegally
From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishlegalisticle‧gal‧ist‧ic /ˌliːɡəˈlɪstɪk◂/ adjective ARGUEtoo concerned about small legal details a legalistic interpretation of the agreementExamples from the Corpus
legalistic• The role of the Lawyer of course was to help in this task by giving interpretation and illumination in a legalistic capacity.• Why the proliferation of these legalistic creatures in a society that has rarely embraced them?• Union resistance is no excuse for not making profit, nor is it an excuse for long legalistic job descriptions.• The other weakness of the social contract model lies in its excessively rational and legalistic nature.• Most businesses, especially small businesses, can not afford to squander vast sums of money on such refined legalistic nit-picking.• The next he is a legalistic prude.• With the United States as its manager, it was an Anglo-Saxon rule-driven, legalistic system.• The Inspector General's office took a severely legalistic view of the incident. 