Order - Definition

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