Emily Dickinson Lexicon

OR'DER, n. [L. ordo; (qu. Pers. رَدَه radah, order, series;) Fr. ordre; It. ordine; Sp. orden; Sw. Dan. G. and Russ. id.; Ir. ord; but all from the Latin except the Persian.]

1. Regular disposition or methodical arrangement of things; a word of extensive application; as, the order of troops on parade; the order of books in a library; the order of proceedings in a legislative assembly. Order is the life of business. Good order is the foundation of all good things. Burke.
2. Proper state; as, the muskets are all in good order. When the bodily organs are in order, a person is in health; when they are out of order, he is indisposed.
3. Adherence to the point in discussion, according to established rules of debate; as, the member is not in order, that is, he wanders from the question.
4. Established mode of proceeding. The motion is not in order.
5. Regularity; settled mode of operation. This fact could not occur in the order of nature; it is against the natural order of things.
6. Mandate; precept; command; authoritative direction. I have received an order from the commander in chief. The general gave orders to march. There is an order of council to issue letters of marque.
7. Rule; regulation; as, the rules and orders of a legislative house.
8. Regular government or discipline. It is necessary for society that good order should be observed. The meeting was turbulent; it was impossible to keep order.
9. Rank; class; division of men; as, the order of nobles; the order of priests; the higher orders of society; men of the lowest order; order of knights; military orders, &c.
10. A religions fraternity; as, the order of Benedictines.
11. A division of natural objects, generally intermediate between class and genus, The classes, in the Linnæan artificial system, are divided into orders, which include one or more genera. Linnæus also arranged vegetables in his natural system, into groups of genera, called orders. In the natural system of Jussieu, orders are subdivisions of classes.
12. Measures; care. Take some order for the safety and support of the soldiers. Provide me soldiers / Whilst I take order for my own affairs. Shak.
13. In rhetoric, the placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty of expression, or to the clear illustration of the subject. Encyc.
14. The title of certain ancient books containing the divine office and manner of its performance. Encyc.
15. In architecture, a system of several members, ornaments and proportions of columns and pilasters; or a regular arrangement of the projecting parts of a building, especially of the columns, so as to form one beautiful whole. The orders are five, the Tuscan, Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, and Composite. The order consists of two principal members, the column, and the entablature, each of which is composed of three principal parts. Those of the column are the base, the shaft, and the capital; those of the entablature are the architrave, the frize, and the cornice. The highth of the Tuscan column is 14 modules or semidiameters of the shaft at the bottom, and that of the entablature 3 1/2. The highth of the Doric order is 16 modules, and that of the entablature 4; that of the Ionic is 18 modules, and that of the entablature 4 1/2; that of the Corinthian order is 20 modules, and that of the entablature 5. The highth of the Composite order agrees with that of the Corinthian. Encyc. In orders, set apart for the performance of divine service; ordained to the work of the Gospel ministry. In order, for the purpose; to the end; as means to an end. The best knowledge is that which is of the greatest use in order to our eternal happiness. To take orders, to have a license to preach the Gospel, and perform other ministerial functions. General orders, the commands or notices which a military commander in chief issues to the troops under his command. Holy orders, the Christian ministry.