Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OR'DI-NAL, a. [L. ordinalis; Fr. ordinal.]

Noting order; as, the ordinal numbers, first, second, third, &c.

OR'DI-NAL, n.

1. A number noting order.
2. A book containing the order of divine services; a ritual. Encyc.

OR'DI-NANCE, n. [It. ordinanza; Fr. ordonnance.]

1. A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action. An ordinance may be a law or statute of sovereign power. In this sense it is often used in the Scriptures. Exod. xv. Num. x. Ezra iii. It may also signify a decree, edict or rescript, and the word has sometimes been applied to the statutes of Parliament, but these are usually called acts or laws. In the United States, it is never applied to the acts of Congress, or of a state legislature.
2. Observance commanded. Taylor.
3. Appointment. Shak.
4. Established rite or ceremony. Heb. ix. In this sense, baptism and the Lord's Supper are denominated ordinances.

OR'DI-NANT, a. [L. ordinans.]

Ordaining; decreeing. [Not used.] Shak.

OR'DI-NA-RI-LY, adv.

Primarily, according to established rules or settled method; hence, commonly; usually; in most cases; as, a winter more than ordinarily severe. Glanville.

OR'DI-NA-RY, a. [L. ordinarius.]

1. According to established order; methodical; regular; customary; as, the ordinary forms of law or justice. Addison.
2. Common; usual. Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing. Addison.
3. Of common rank; not distinguished by superior excellence; as, an ordinary reader; men of ordinary judgment. Hooker.
4. Plain; not handsome; as, an ordinary woman; a person of an ordinary form; an ordinary face.
5. Inferior; of little merit; as; the book is an ordinary performance.
6. An ordinary seaman is one not expert or fully skilled.

OR'DI-NA-RY, n.

1. In the common and canon law, one who has ordinary or immediate jurisdiction in matters ecclesiastical; an ecclesiastical judge. In England, the bishop of the diocese is commonly the ordinary, and the archbishop is the ordinary of the whole province. The ordinary of assizes and sessions was formerly a deputy of the bishop appointed to give malefactors their neck-verses. The ordinary of Newgate is one who attends on condemned malefactors to prepare them for death. Encyc.
2. Settled establishment. Bacon.
3. Regular price of a meal. Shak.
4. A place of eating where the prices are settled. Swift.
5. The establishment of persons employed by government to take charge of ships of war laid up in harbors. Hence a ship in ordinary is one laid up under the direction of the master attendant. In ordinary, in actual and constant service; statedly attending and serving; as, a physician or chaplain in ordinary. An embassador in ordinary, is one constantly resident at a foreign court.

OR'DI-NA-RY, n. [In heraldry, figures frequently found in coat-armor. They are divided into greater ordinaries, which are the pale, the bend, the fess, the chief, the cross, the saltier, the chevron, and the border; and lesser ordinaries, as the fleur-de-lis, the annulet, the lozenge, the martlet, &c. – E. H. B.]

OR'DI-NATE, a. [L. ordinatus.]

Regular; methodical. An ordinate figure is one whose sides and angles are equal. Ray.

OR'DI-NATE, n.

In geometry and, conic sections, a line drawn from any point of the circumference of an ellipsis or other conic section, perpendicularly across the axis to the other side. Encyc. An ordinate is a line drawn perpendicular to the axis of a curve and terminating the curvilinear space. Bp. Berkeley. Todd. Ordinates of a curve, right lines parallel to one another, terminated by the curve, and bisected by a right line called the diameter. Cyc.

OR'DI-NATE, v.t.

To appoint. [Not used.]

OR'DI-NATE-LY, adv.

In a regular methodical manner. Skelton.

OR-DI-NA'TION, n. [L. ordinatio.]

1. The state of being ordained or appointed; established order or tendency consequent on a decree. Virtue and vice have a natural ordination to the happiness and misery of life respectively. Morris.
2. The act of conferring holy orders or sacerdotal power; called also consecration. Encyc.
3. In the presbyterian and congregational churches, the act of settling or establishing a licensed clergyman over a church and congregation with pastoral charge and authority; also, the act of conferring on a clergyman the powers of a settled minister of the Gospel, without the charge or oversight of a particular church, but with the general powers of an evangelist, who is authorized to form churches and administer the sacraments of baptism and the Lord's supper, wherever he may be called to officiate.

OR'DI-NA-TIVE, a.

Directing; giving order. Colgrave.

OR'DIN-A-TOR, a.

One who ordains or establishes. Baxter.

ORD'NANCE, a. [from ordinance.]

Cannon or great guns, mortars and howitzers; artillery.

OR'DON-NANCE, n. [Fr.]

In the arts, the disposition of the parts either in regard to the whole piece or to the several parts. Cyc.

OR'DURE, n. [Fr.]

Dung; excrements. Shak.

ORE, n. [Sax. ore, ora; D. erts; G. erz. Qu. L. æs, æris, brass; Rabbinic, עור, a mineral.]

1. The compound of a metal and some other substance, as oxygen, sulphur or carbon, called its mineralizer, by which its properties are disguised or lost. Metals found free from such combination and exhibiting naturally their appropriate character, are not called ores, but native metals. D. Olmsted.
2. Metal; as, the liquid ore. Milton.

O'RE-AD, a. [from Gr. ορος, mountain.]

A mountain nymph. Milton.

ORE-TENUS, adv. [Ore tenus; L.]

By word of mouth.

ORE-WEED, or ORE-WOOD, n.

Sea weed. [Not used.] Carew.

ORF'GILD, a. [Sax. orf, cattle, and geld, payment.]

The restitution of goods or money stolen, if taken in the day time. Ainsworth.

OR'FRAYS, n. [Fr. orfroi.]

Fringe of gold; gold embroidery. Chaucer.

OR'GAL, n.

Argal; lees of wine dried; tartar. Encyc.