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The definition of 'have teeth' in thefreedictionary is

To have enough power or support of authority to compel obedience or punish offenders, as of a law.

I came up with two interpretations of 'as of a law' and have no idea what it really means.

  1. The phrase 'have teeth' is typically used to describe a law.
  2. It's enforced like a law.

What does 'as of a law' mean here?

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    It means the former. It's 'dictionary-ese' for as used to describe a law.
    – Kate Bunting
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 15:54
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    @KateBunting: haha - ref my previous comment to you, I just spent several seconds trying to think of a succinct way of explaining that this extremely "clipped" form is only likely to occur in special contexts like dictionary definitions. That was before I scrolled down to see your comment here. Dictionarese does it for me! :)
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 16:25
  • Adverbial as of a law (EQV like a law, in the same way as a law) refers back to have [enough power], not compel [obedience]. Note that this isn't a matter of syntax - it's a matter of pragmatics (that's the interpretation that makes most sense). Syntactically speaking, by default we assume an adverbial element like this refers back to the nearest preceding credible verb. But compel just isn't a very credible candidate here.
    – FumbleFingers
    Commented Jan 9, 2023 at 16:34

1 Answer 1

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A law is said ro "have teeth" when that law has a significant penalty attached, or soem enforcement mechanism that will induce peopoel to obey the law. A law is said to be "toothless " or to "have no teeth" when it has no enforcement mechanism at all, or when the enforcement is so week tha it will not induce anyone to comply, people will instead comply only if they happen to choose to do so.

When the dictionary entry says:

To have enough power or support of authority to compel obedience or punish offenders, as of a law.

it means that this sense of "have teeth" is often used in regard to laws, indeed that may be the most common use of the expression. This is close to the OP's suggestion number 1.

In general, when a dictionary gives a specific sense of a word ort expression, and ads "as of X" it means that the phrase is typicallyu or commonly used to describe X, or in relation to X. For example, one might see:

  • Inflated: filled with air, as of a balloon.
  • Loaded: Charged with ammunition or ready to use, as of a gun.

This use of "as of" is commonly found in dictionary definitions.

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