Or"der (?), n. [OE. ordre, F.
ordre, fr. L. ordo, ordinis. Cf. Ordain,
Ordinal.]
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.
Artificial order or system.
See Artificial classification, under Artificial,
and Note to def. 12 above. -- Close order
(Mil.), the arrangement of the ranks with a distance of
about half a pace between them; with a distance of about three yards
the ranks are in open order. -- The four
Orders, The Orders four, the four
orders of mendicant friars. See Friar. Chaucer. --
General orders (Mil.), orders issued
which concern the whole command, or the troops generally, in
distinction from special orders. -- Holy
orders. (a) (Eccl.) The
different grades of the Christian ministry; ordination to the
ministry. See def. 10 above. (b) (R. C.
Ch.) A sacrament for the purpose of conferring a special
grace on those ordained. -- In order to,
for the purpose of; to the end; as means to.
The best knowledge is that which is of greatest use
in order to our eternal happiness.
Tillotson.
-- Minor orders (R. C. Ch.), orders
beneath the diaconate in sacramental dignity, as acolyte, exorcist,
reader, doorkeeper. -- Money order. See under
Money. -- Natural order. (Bot.)
See def. 12, Note. -- Order book.
(a) A merchant's book in which orders are
entered. (b) (Mil.) A book kept at
headquarters, in which all orders are recorded for the information of
officers and men. (c) A book in the House of
Commons in which proposed orders must be entered. [Eng.] --
Order in Council, a royal order issued with and
by the advice of the Privy Council. [Great Britain] --
Order of battle (Mil.), the particular
disposition given to the troops of an army on the field of
battle. -- Order of the day, in
legislative bodies, the special business appointed for a specified
day. -- Order of a differential equation
(Math.), the greatest index of differentiation in the
equation. -- Sailing orders (Naut.),
the final instructions given to the commander of a ship of war
before a cruise. -- Sealed orders, orders
sealed, and not to be opened until a certain time, or arrival at a
certain place, as after a ship is at sea. -- Standing
order. (a) A continuing regulation for
the conduct of parliamentary business. (b)
(Mil.) An order not subject to change by an officer
temporarily in command. -- To give order,
to give command or directions. Shak. -- To
take order for, to take charge of; to make arrangements
concerning.
Whiles I take order for mine own
affairs.
Shak.
Syn. -- Arrangement; management. See Direction.