letter of the law

The precise wording rather than the spirit or intent. For example, Since it was the first time he'd broken the rules, the school decided to ignore the letter of the law and just give him a warning . [Late 1500s]

Common Names:

Name	Pronounced	Usage
Hisham	-	Arabic
Walburga	-	German
Siddhi	-	Indian, Marathi
Nolan	NO-lan	Irish, English
CÉSar	THE-sahr (Spanish), SE-sahr (Latin American Spanish)	French, Spanish, Portuguese
Paz (2)	-	Hebrew