Order

Order, or′dėr, n. regular arrangement, method: degree, rank, or position: rule, regular system or government: command: a class, a society of persons of the same profession, &c.: a religious fraternity: a dignity conferred by a sovereign, &c., giving membership in a body, after the medieval orders of knighthood, also the distinctive insignia thereof: social rank generally: a number of genera having many important points in common: a commission to supply, purchase, or sell something: (archit.) one of the different ways in which the column, with its various parts and its entablature, are moulded and related to each other: due action towards some end, esp. in old phrase 'to take order:' the sacerdotal or clerical function: (pl.) the several degrees or grades of the Christian ministry.—v.t. to arrange: to conduct: to command.—v.i. to give command.—ns. Or′der-book, a book for entering the orders of customers, the special orders of a commanding officer, or, the motions to be put to the House of Commons; Or′derer; Or′dering, arrangement: management: the act or ceremony of ordaining, as priests or deacons.—adj. Or′derless, without order: disorderly.—n. Or′derliness.—adj. Or′derly, in good order: regular: well regulated: of good behaviour: quiet: being on duty.—adv. regularly: methodically.—n. a non-commissioned officer who carries official messages for his superior officer, formerly the first sergeant of a company.—adj. Or′dinate, in order: regular.—n. the distance of a point in a curve from a straight line, measured along another straight line at right angles to it—the distance of the point from the other of the two lines is called the abscissa, and the two lines are the axes of co-ordinates.—adv. Or′dinately.—Order-in-Council, a sovereign order given with advice of the Privy Council; Order-of-battle, the arrangement of troops or ships at the beginning of a battle; Order-of-the-day, in a legislative assembly, the business set down to be considered on any particular day: any duty assigned for a particular day.—Close order, the usual formation for soldiers in line or column, the ranks 16 inches apart, or for vessels two cables'-length (1440 ft.) apart—opp. to Extended order; Full orders, the priestly order; Minor orders, those of acolyte, exorcist, reader, and doorkeeper; Open order, a formation in which ships are four cables'-length (2880 ft.) apart; Sailing orders, written instructions given to the commander of a vessel before sailing; Sealed orders, such instructions as the foregoing, not to be opened until a certain specified time; Standing orders or rules, regulations for procedure adopted by a legislative assembly.—In order, and Out of order, in accordance with regular and established usage of procedure, in subject or way of presenting it before a legislative assembly, &c., or the opposite; In order to, for the end that; Take order (Shak.), to take measures. [Fr. ordre—L. ordo, -inis.]