n. A row; rank; line.n. A rank, grade, or class of a community or society: as, the higher or the lower orders of the community.n. Specifically— The degree, rank, or status of clergymen.n. One of the several degrees or grades of the clerical office.n. In the Roman Catholic, Greek, Anglican, and other episcopal churches, the sacrament or rite of ordination, by which ecclesiastics receive the power and grace for the discharge of their several functions: specifically termed holy order, or more commonly holy orders.n. The consideration attaching to rank; honor; dignity; state.n. In zoology, that taxonomic group which regularly comes next below the class and next above the family, consisting of one or more families, and forming a division (sometimes the whole) of a class.n. In botany, the most important unit of classification above the genus, corresponding somewhat closely to family in zoölogy. See family, 6.n. A number of persons of the same profession, occupation, or pursuits, constituting a separate class in the community, or united by some special interest.n. Specifically— A body or society of persons living by common consent under the same religious, moral, or social regulations; especially, a monastic society or fraternity: as, an order of monks or friars; the Benedictine or Franciscan order.n. An institution, partly imitated from the medieval and crusading orders of military monks, but generally founded by a sovereign, a national legislature, or a prince of high rank, for the purpose of rewarding meritorious service by the conferring of a dignity. Most honorary orders consist of several classes, known as knights companions, officers, commanders, grand officers, and grand commanders, otherwise called grand cross or grand cordon. Many orders have fewer classes, a few having only one. It is customary to divide honorary orders into three ranks: Those which admit only nobles of the highest rank, and among foreigners only sovereign princes or members of reigning families; of this character are the Gulden Fleece (Austria and Spain), the Elephant (Denmark), and the Garter (Great Britain): it is usual to regard these three as the existing orders of highest dignity.n. Those orders which are conferred upon members of noble families only, and sometimes because of the mere fact of noble birth, without special services.n. The orders of merit, which are supposed to be conferred for services only. Of these the Legion of Honor is the best-known type. Two of the orders of merit may be regarded as somewhat exceptional — the first class of the Order of St. George of Russia and the Order of Maria Theresa of Austria. The former is conferred only upon a commanding general who has defeated an army of 50,000 men, or captured the enemy's capital, or brought about an honorable peace. There is now no person living who has gained this distinction regularly, though it has been given to a foreign sovereign. Other orders of merit approach these more or less nearly, as they are conferred with more or less care. The various orders have their appropriate insignia, consisting usually of a collar of design peculiar to the order, a star, cross, jewel, badge, ribbon, or the like. It is common to speak of an order by its name alone, as the Garter, the Bath. An order is said to be conferred or bestowed upon the recipient of its distinction; the recipient is said to be decorated with such an order; and the word order is often applied to the decoration or badge. See bath, garter, knighthood, star, thistle, etc.n. A series or suite; a suit or change (as of apparel).n. Regular sequence or succession; succession of acts or events; course or method of action or occurrence.n. Regulated succession; formal disposition or array; methodical or harmonious arrangement; hence, fit or consistent collocation of parts.n. 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.n. In classical arch., a column entire (including base, shaft, and capital), with a superincumbent entablature, viewed as forming an architectural whole or the characteristic element of a style.n. In mathematics: In geometry, the degree of a geometrical form considered as a locus of points, or as determined by the degree of a locus of points.n. In analysis, the number of elementary operations contained in a complex operation; also, that character of a quantity which corresponds to the degree of its algebraic expression. See the phrases below, and also equation.n. Established rule, administration, system, or régime.n. Prescribed law; regulation; rule; ordinance.n. Authority; warrant.n. Regular or customary mode of procedure; established usage; conformity to established rule or method of procedure; specifically, prescribed or customary mode of proceeding in debates or discussions, or in the conduct of deliberative or legislative bodies, public meetings, etc., or conformity with the same: as, the order of business; to rise to a point of order; the motion is not in order.n. A proper state or condition; a normal, healthy, or efficient state.n. Eccles., in liturgics, a stated form of divine service, or administration of a rite or ceremony, prescribed by ecclesiastical authority: as, the order of confirmation; also, the service so prescribed.n. Conformity to law or established authority or usage; the desirable condition consequent upon such conformity; absence of revolt, turbulence, or confusion; public tranquillity: as, it is the duty of the government to uphold law and order.n. Suitable action in view of some particular result or end; care; preparation; measures; steps: generally used in the obsolete phrase to take order.n. Authoritative direction; injunction; mandate; command, whether oral or written; instruction: as, to receive orders to march; to disobey orders.n. Specifically — In law, a direction of a court or judge, made or entered in writing, and not included in a judgment. A judgment is the formal determination of a trial; an order is usually the formal determination of a motion.n. A written direction to pay money or deliver property: as, an order on a banker for twenty pounds; pay to A. B. or order; an order to a jeweler to return a necklace to bearer.n. A direction to make, provide, or furnish anything; a commission to make purchases, supply goods, etc.: as, to give an agent an order for groceries; an order for canal stock; the work was done to order.n. A free pass for admission to a theater or other place of entertainment.n. See contact.n. An order given by a customs collector for the storage of foreign merchandise which has not been delivered to the consignees within a certain time after its arrival in port.n. In other churches, the Christian ministry, especially of the Anglican churches.n. See merit.n. An order founded by the duke Charles Eugene of Würtemberg in 1759.n. That order in which the cause comes before the effect.n. A Russian order founded in 1769 by the empress Catherine II. See def. 6 .n. The prevailing rule or custom.n. Not in an efficient condition: as, the watch is out of order.n. In a meeting or legislative assembly, not in accordance with recognized or established rules: as, the motion is out of order.n. Sick; unwell; indisposed.To put in a row or rank; place in rank or position; range.To place in the position or office of clergyman; confer clerical rank and authority upon; ordain.To arrange methodically; dispose formally or fittingly; marshal; array; arrange suitably or harmoniously.To dispose; adjust; regulate; direct; manage; govern; ordain; establish.To instruct authoritatively or imperatively; give an order or command to; command; bid: as, the general ordered the troops to advance; to order a person out of the house.To command to be made, done, issued, etc.; give a commission for; require to be supplied or furnished: as, to order goods through an agent.To carry on.To bid, require, instruct.n. Specifically, in the tobacco-trade, same as case, 9.n. In petrography, in the quantitative system of classification (see rock), a taxonomic division of igneous rocks which follows the class and is based on the proportions of the standard mineral subgroups within the preponderant salic or femic group on which the class is based.n. In military tactics, the position of a rifle in a military drill after the command to order arms has been obeyed: as, to load from the order.
