order Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun (often plural) a command given by a superior (e.g., a military or law enforcement officer) that must be obeyed
    • the British ships dropped anchor and waited for orders from London
  2. noun a degree in a continuum of size or quantity
    order of magnitude.
    • it was on the order of a mile
    • an explosion of a low order of magnitude
  3. noun established customary state (especially of society)
    • order ruled in the streets
    • law and order
  4. noun logical or comprehensible arrangement of separate elements
    ordering; ordination.
    • we shall consider these questions in the inverse order of their presentation
  5. noun a condition of regular or proper arrangement
    orderliness.
    • he put his desk in order
    • the machine is now in working order
  6. noun a legally binding command or decision entered on the court record (as if issued by a court or judge)
    edict; fiat; decree; rescript.
    • a friend in New Mexico said that the order caused no trouble out there
  7. noun a commercial document used to request someone to supply something in return for payment and providing specifications and quantities
    purchase order.
    • IBM received an order for a hundred computers
  8. noun a formal association of people with similar interests
    guild; club; society; social club; gild; lodge.
    • he joined a golf club
    • they formed a small lunch society
    • men from the fraternal order will staff the soup kitchen today
  9. noun a body of rules followed by an assembly
    rules of order; parliamentary law; parliamentary procedure.
  10. noun (usually plural) the status or rank or office of a Christian clergyman in an ecclesiastical hierarchy
    Holy Order.
    • theologians still disagree over whether `bishop' should or should not be a separate Order
  11. noun a group of person living under a religious rule
    monastic order.
    • the order of Saint Benedict
  12. noun (biology) taxonomic group containing one or more families
  13. noun a request for something to be made, supplied, or served
    • I gave the waiter my order
    • the company's products were in such demand that they got more orders than their call center could handle
  14. noun (architecture) one of original three styles of Greek architecture distinguished by the type of column and entablature used or a style developed from the original three by the Romans
  15. noun the act of putting things in a sequential arrangement
    ordering.
    • there were mistakes in the ordering of items on the list
  16. verb give instructions to or direct somebody to do something with authority
    say; enjoin; tell.
    • I said to him to go home
    • She ordered him to do the shopping
    • The mother told the child to get dressed
  17. verb make a request for something
    • Order me some flowers
    • order a work stoppage
  18. verb issue commands or orders for
    prescribe; dictate.
  19. verb bring into conformity with rules or principles or usage; impose regulations
    regularize; regularise; regulate; govern.
    • We cannot regulate the way people dress
    • This town likes to regulate
  20. verb bring order to or into
    • Order these files
  21. verb place in a certain order
    • order the photos chronologically
  22. verb appoint to a clerical posts
    ordinate; consecrate; ordain.
    • he was ordained in the Church
  23. verb arrange thoughts, ideas, temporal events
    put; set up; arrange.
    • arrange my schedule
    • set up one's life
    • I put these memories with those of bygone times
  24. verb assign a rank or rating to
    grade; range; rank; rate; place.
    • how would you rank these students?
    • The restaurant is rated highly in the food guide

WordNet

Or"der noun
Etymology
OE. ordre, F. ordre, fr. L. ordo, ordinis. Cf. Ordain, Ordinal.
Definitions
  1. Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; method; system; as: (a) Of material things, like the books in a library. (b) Of intellectual notions or ideas, like the topics of a discource. (c) Of periods of time or occurrences, and the like.
    The side chambers were . . . thirty in order. Ezek. xli. 6.
    Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable. Milton.
    Good order is the foundation of all good things. Burke.
  2. Right arrangement; a normal, correct, or fit condition; as, the house is in order; the machinery is out of order. Locke.
  3. The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion. Dantiel.
    And, pregnant with his grander thought, Brought the old order into doubt. Emerson.
  4. Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet; as, to preserve order in a community or an assembly.
  5. That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate.
    The church hath authority to establish that for an order at one time which at another time it may abolish. Hooker.
  6. A command; a mandate; a precept; a direction.
    Upon this new fright, an order was made by both houses for disarming all the papists in England. Clarendon.
  7. Hence: A commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods; a direction, in writing, to pay money, to furnish supplies, to admit to a building, a place of entertainment, or the like; as, orders for blankets are large.
    In those days were pit orders -- beshrew the uncomfortable manager who abolished them. Lamb.
  8. A number of things or persons arranged in a fixed or suitable place, or relative position; a rank; a row; a grade; especially, a rank or class in society; a group or division of men in the same social or other position; also, a distinct character, kind, or sort; as, the higher or lower orders of society; talent of a high order.
    They are in equal order to their several ends. Jer. Taylor.
    Various orders various ensigns bear. Granville.
    Which, to his order of mind, must have seemed little short of crime. Hawthorne.
  9. A body of persons having some common honorary distinction or rule of obligation; esp., a body of religious persons or aggregate of convents living under a common rule; as, the Order of the Bath; the Franciscan order.
    Find a barefoot brother out, One of our order, to associate me. Shak.
    The venerable order of the Knights Templars. Sir W. Scott.
  10. An ecclesiastical grade or rank, as of deacon, priest, or bishop; the office of the Christian ministry; -- often used in the plural; as, to take orders, or to take holy orders, that is, to enter some grade of the ministry.
  11. (Arch.) The disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (as the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural designing. ✍ The Greeks used three different orders, easy to distinguish, Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian. The Romans added the Tuscan, and changed the Doric so that it is hardly recognizable, and also used a modified Corinthian called Composite. The Renaissance writers on architecture recognized five orders as orthodox or classical, -- Doric (the Roman sort), Ionic, Tuscan, Corinthian, and Composite. See Illust. of Capital.
  12. (Nat. Hist.) An assemblage of genera having certain important characters in common; as, the Carnivora and Insectivora are orders of Mammalia. ✍ The Linnæan artificial orders of plants rested mainly on identity in the numer of pistils, or agreement in some one character. Natural orders are groups of genera agreeing in the fundamental plan of their flowers and fruit. A natural order is usually (in botany) equivalent to a family, and may include several tribes.
  13. (Rhet.) The placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty or clearness of expression.
  14. (Math.) Rank; degree; thus, the order of a curve or surface is the same as the degree of its equation. Syn. -- Arrangement; management. See Direction.
Or"der transitive verb
Etymology
From Order, n.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Ordered ; present participle & verbal noun Ordering
Definitions
  1. To put in order; to reduce to a methodical arrangement; to arrange in a series, or with reference to an end. Hence, to regulate; to dispose; to direct; to rule.
    To him that ordereth his conversation aright. Ps. 1. 23.
    Warriors old with ordered spear and shield. Milton.
  2. To give an order to; to command; as, to order troops to advance.
  3. To give an order for; to secure by an order; as, to order a carriage; to order groceries.
  4. (Eccl.) To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry.
    These ordered folk be especially titled to God. Chaucer.
    Persons presented to be ordered deacons. Bk. of Com. Prayer.
Or"der intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To give orders; to issue commands.

Webster 1913