ordinance 
And the two brethern a-geyn their burghes and townes 
made erode ordenaunce, as Merlin didehem counseile. 
Merlin (E. K T.S.), i. 55. 
5f. An appliance ; an appointment; an arrange- 
ment ; equipment : as, ordinance of war ; hence, 
specifically, cannon ; ordnance. See ordnance. 
\Vith all her [theirj ordinance there, 
Whiche thei ayene the citee cast. 
Gower, Conf. Aniant., v. 
In the eleventh year, in the month Bui, which is the 
eighth month, was the house finished with all the appur- 
tenances thereof, and with all the ordinances thereof. 
1 Ki. vi. 38 (margin). 
Item, amonge all wondre and straunge ordynaunce that 
we sawe there, bothe for see and lande, with all maner 
Artyllary and Ingynes that may be deuysyd, pryncypally 
we noted .ij. peces of artyllary. 
Sir R. Guylforde, Pylgrymage, p. 7. 
Caves and womby vaultages of France 
Shall chide your trespass and return your mock 
In second accent to his ordinance. 
Shale., Hen. V., ii. 4. 126. 
6f. Established state or condition ; regular or 
established mode of action; proceeding as regu- 
lated by authority. 
Knowest thou the ordinances of heaven? 
Job xxxviii. 33. 
All these things change from their ordinance 
Their natures and preformed faculties 
To monstrous quality. Shak., J. C., i. 3. 66. 
7. Regulation by authority ; a command ; an ap- 
pointment; an order; that which is ordained, 
ordered, or appointed ; a rule or law established 
by authority; edict; decree, as of the Supreme 
Being or of Fate; law or statute made by 
human authority ; authoritative regulation. In 
modern usage the term covers all the standing regulations 
adopted by a municipal corporation ; or, in other words, 
the local laws and internal regulations passed by the gov- 
erning body, and calculated to have permanent or continu- 
ous operation, as distinguished from resolution*, which are 
orders of temporary character or intended to meet a spe- 
cial occasion. Thus, an order forbidding fireworks in the 
streets is an ordinance; one appropriating money for cel- 
ebrating A holiday is a resolution. Abbreviated ord. 
His doughter Custance was wedded to Bretayn, 
With William's ordinance, vnto the erle Alayn. 
Rob. of Brunne, p. 83. 
He made also divers Ordinances concerning the mea- 
sures of Corn, and Wine, and Cloath ; and that no Cloath 
should any where be dy'd of any other Colour than black, 
but only in principal Towns and Cities. 
Baiter, Chronicles, p. 66. 
God's ordinance 
Of Death is blown in every wind. 
Tennyson, To J. 8. 
8. Eccles., a religious ceremony, rite, or prac- 
tice established by authority: as, the ordinance 
of baptism. 
He reproved also the practice of private members mak- 
ing speeches in the church assemblies, to the disturbance 
and hindrance of the ordinances. 
Winthrop, Hist New England, II. 376. 
9. In arch., arrangement; system; order: said 
of a part or detail as well as of an architectu- 
ral whole. 
The soffits or ceilings ... are of the same material as 
the walls and columnar ordinances. Encyc. Brit., II. 389. 
Northwest ordinance. Same as ordinance of 1787. 
Ordinance of Nullification. See nullification. Ordi- 
nance of parliament, a temporary act of parliament. 
Ordinance Of 1784, an act of the United States Congress 
under the Confederation, passed April 23d, 1784, for the 
temporary government of the Northwest Territory, com- 
prising tracts ceded to the United States by the several 
States Ordinance Of 1787, the law of Congress under 
the Confederation according to which was organized the 
Northwest Territory, west of Pennsylvania, east of the 
Mississippi, and north of the Ohio rivers. Its chief pro- 
visions related to the government of the territory, the 
rights of citizens, the formation of new States, free navi- 
gation, and especially the prohibition of slavery and in- 
voluntary servitude, except as punishment for crimes. 
Ordinance of staples. See staple. Ordinance of the 
forest, an English statute (33 and 34 Edward I.) touching 
matters and causes of the forest. Ordinance of the 
Saladin Tithe, an English ordinance of 1188 levying a 
tax of that name. It is important as being one of the 
earliest attempts to tax personal property, and because 
local jurors were employed to determine the liability of 
individuals. Self-denying Ordinance, in Eng. hint., 
an ordinance, passed April 3d, 1645, that members of either 
house of Parliament holding military or civil office should 
vacate such positions at the expiration of forty days. = 
Syn. 7. Edict, Decree, etc. See (awl. 
ordinance!, v. t. [< ordinance, n., 5.] To arm 
with ordnance. 
The people . . . conuaied him [Ulysses] in to his realme 
of Ithaca in a shippe of wonderf ull beautie, well ordinanced 
and manned for his defence. 
Sir T. Elyot, The Governour, ii. 2. 
ordinand (or'di-nand), n. [= F. ordinand = 
Sp. Pg. ordcnando = It. ordinando, < L. oriliiii/n- 
di/s, gerundive of ordinare, ordain: see ordain, 
oi-diiiate.'] One about to be ordained or to re- 
ceive orders. 
A plain alb was again the only dress prescribed to the 
ordinands, and it remained unaltered to the end of the or- 
dination. R. W. Dixon, Hist. Church of Eng., xvii. 
4146 
ordinant (or'di-nant), a. and n. [= F. ordimnit 
= Sp. Pg. ordcnaiite = It. ordiitantc, < L. ordi- 
nan(t-)s, ppr. of ordinare, ordain, order: see or- 
datn, order, V.~\ I. a. Ruling; overruling; dis- 
posing; directing; ordaining. 
Why, even in that was Heaven ordinant. 
Shak., Hamlet, v. 2. 48. 
II. n. One who ordains; a prelate who con- 
fers orders. 
ordinarily (6r'di-na-ri-li), ode. In an ordinary 
manner, (a) According to established rules or settled 
method ; in accordance with an established order. 
The Author of Nature hath so ordained that the temper 
of the inferior bodies should ordinarily depend vpon the 
superior. Hakewill, Apology, v. 1. 
(V) Commonly ; usually ; in most cases. 
Corn (Indian) was sold ordinarily at three shillings the 
bushel, a good cow at seven or eight pounds, and some at 
5 and other thing answerable. 
Winthrop, Hist. New England, II. 25. 
Ordinary (6r'di-na-ri), a. and n. [= F. ordi- 
naire = Sp. Pg. It. ordinario, < L. ordinarius, 
of the usual order, usual, customary, common, 
< ordo (ordin-), order: see order.} I. a. 1. 
Conformed to a fixed or regulate^ sequence 
or arrangement ; hence, sanctioned by law or 
usage ; established ; settled ; stated ; regular ; 
normal; customary. 
Euen then (my priests) may you make holyday, 
And pray no more but ordinairie prayers. 
Gascoigne, Steele Glas (ed. ArberX p. 81. 
Moreover, the porters were at every gate; it was not 
lawful for any to go from his ordinary service ; for their 
brethren the Levites prepared for them. 1 Esd. i. 16. 
Lady, may it please you to bestow upon a stranger the 
ordinary grace of salutation? 
Beau, and Fl., Scornful Lady, i. 1. 
2. Common in practice or use ; usual ; fre- 
quent; habitual. 
Be patient, princes ; you do know, these fits 
Are with his highness very ordinary. 
Shak., 2 Hen. IV., iv. 4. 115. 
Their ordinary drink being water, yet once a day they 
will warm their blouds with a draught of wine. 
Sandys, Travailes, p. 14. 
To be excited is not the ordinary state of the mind, but 
the extraordinary, the now and then state. 
J. H. Newman, Parochial Sermons, i. 263. 
3. Common in occurrence ; such as may be met 
with at any time or place ; not distinguished 
in any way from others; hence, often, some- 
what inferior ; of little merit ; not distinguished 
by superior excellence ; commonplace ; mean ; 
low. 
Some of them hath he made high days, and hallowed 
them, and some of them hath he made ordinary days. 
Ecclus. xxxiii. 9. 
He has two essential parts of the courtier, pride and ig- 
norance ; marry, the rest come somewhat after the ordi- 
nary gallant. B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, ii. 1. 
You will wonder how such an ordinary fellow as Wood 
could get His Majesty's broad seal. Swift. 
An ordinary man would neither have incurred the dan- 
ger of succouring Essex, nor the disgrace of assailing him. 
Macaulay, Lord Bacon. 
4. Ugly; not handsome: as, she is an ordinary 
woman. Johnson. [Now only in vulgar use, 
often contracted ornery.] 
Well, I reckon he [a cat who had suffered from an ex- 
plosion] was praps the orneriest lookin' beast you ever see. 
Mark Twain, Roughing It, Ixi. 
Judge ordinary. See judge. Lord ordinary, in the 
Court of Session, Scotland, the judge before whom a cause 
depends in the Outer House. The judge who officiates 
weekly inthebill-chamberof the Court of Session is called 
the lord ordinary on the bills. In Scotland the sheriff of 
a county is called the judge ordinary. Imp. Diet Ordi- 
nary Wblic. See biblic. Ordinary care, ordinary 
diligence, in law, such care or diligence as men of com- 
mon prudence, under similar circumstances, usually exer- 
cise. Ordinary conveyance, dodecahedron, equa- 
tion, function, mark. See the nouns. Ordinary neg- 
lect, ordinary negligence. See negligence, 2.- Ordi- 
nary ray, in double refraction. See refraction. Ordi- 
nary seaman, a seaman who is capable of the commoner 
duties, but who has not served long enough at sea to be 
considered complete in a sailor's duties and to be rated 
as an able seaman. Ordinary tablet, a gambling-house. 
Exposing the daingerous mischiefs that the dicyng 
howses, com.nonly called ordinarie tables, Ac., do dayley 
breede within the bowelles of the famous citie of London. 
G. Whetstone, cited in Poet. Decani., ii. 240. (Nares.) 
Ordinary time, in milit. tactics in the United States, 
quick time, which is 110 steps or 86 yards a minute, or 2 
miles 1613 yards an hour. Wilhelm. = Syn. 1 and 2. Regu- 
lar, etc. (see normal), wonted. 3. Vulgar, etc. (see com- 
mon}, homely. 
II. .; f,\. ordinaries (-r\z). 1. One possessing 
immediate jurisdiction in his own right and not 
by special deputation. Specifically (o) In ecdes. 
law, a bishop, archbishop, or other ecclesiastic or his dep- 
uty, in his capacity as an ex officio ecclesiastical judge ; 
also, the bishop's deputy in other ecclesiastical matters, 
including formerly the administration of estates. 
They be not few which have licences, . . . some of the 
pope, and some of their ordinaries. 
Tyndale, Ans. to SirT. More, etc. (Parker Soc., 1850), p. 41. 
ordinary 
Every Minister so repelling any (from the Holy Com- 
munion] . . . shall be obliged to give an account of the 
same to the Ordinary. 
Book of Common Prayer, Rubric in Communion Office. 
In spiritual causes, a lay person may be no ordinary. 
Hooker, Eccles. Polity, viii. 8. 
If the ordinary claimed the incriminated clerk, the secu- 
lar court surrendered him for ecclesiastical trial. 
Stubbs, Const. Hist., 399. 
(ft) An English diocesan officer, entitled the ordinary nj 
assize and sessions, appointed to give criminals their neck- 
verses, perform other religious services for them, and as- 
sist in preparing them for death. 
The Ordinary 's paid for setting the Psalm, and the Par- 
ish-Priest for reading the Ceremony. 
Congreve, Way of the World, iii. 13. 
2. A judge empowered to take cognizance of 
causes in his own right, and not by delegation. 
Specifically (re) In the Court of Session in Scotland, one 
of the five judges, sitting in separate courts, who form the 
Outer House. Appeals may be taken from their decision 
to the Inner House. (6) In some of the United States, a 
judge of a court of probate. 
3. The established or due sequence; the ap- 
pointed or fixed form ; in the Roman Catholic 
missal and in other Latin liturgies, the estab- 
lished sequence or order for saying mass ; the 
service of the mass ( with exclusion of the canon ) 
as preeminent ; the ordo. in the medieval English 
liturgical books the Latin title was Ordinarium et Canon 
ilissce, the ordinary and canon of the mass ; in the Roman 
missal and in general Latin use the title is Ordo Missce, the 
order of the mass, and the Canon Missee, canon of the mass, 
is entered as a new title. Hence some writers call only 
that part of the mass which precedes the canon the ordi- 
nary or ordo. 
Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, devised that Ordinary or 
form of service which hereafter was observed in the whole 
realm. Fvller, Ch. Hist., III. i. 23. (Dames.) 
4f. Rule; guide. 
They be right hangmen, to murder whosoever desireth 
for that doctrine, that God hath given to be the ordinary 
of our faith and living. 
Tyndale, Ans. to Sir T. More, etc. (Parker Soc., 1850), p. 169. 
5. Something regular and customary; some- 
thing in common use. 6. A usual or custo- 
mary meal; hence, a regular meal provided at 
an eating-house for every one, as distinguished 
from dishes specially ordered ; a table d'hote. 
We have had a merry and a lusty ordinary, 
And wine, and good meat, and a bouncing reckoning. 
Fletcher, Wildgoose Chase, i. 2. 
We had in our boate a very good ordinary, and excellent 
company. Evelyn, Diary, Oct. 5, 1641. 
When I was a young man about this town, I frequented 
the ordinary of the Black-horse in Holborn. 
Steele, Taller, No. 135. 
7. A place where such meals are served; an 
eating-house where there is a fixed price for 
a meal. 
He doth, besides, bring me the names of all the young 
seditious spirits. Beau, and Ft., Woman-Hater, i. 3. 
The place or ordinary where he uses to eat. 
B. Jonson, Every Man out of his Humour, iii. 1. 
She noticed a small inn or ordinary, where a card nailed 
to the door-post announced that a dinner was to be had 
inside at a cheap rate. J. Hawthorne, Dust, p. 397. 
8. The average ; the mass ; the common run. 
I see no more in you than in the ordinary 
Of nature's sale-work. 
Shak., As you Like it, iii. 5. 42. 
9. In her., a very common bearing, usually 
bounded by straight lines, but sometimes by 
one of the heraldic lines, wavy, nebu!6, or the 
like. See Knc 2 , 12. The ordinaries are the oldest bear- 
ings, and in general the oldest escutcheons are those 
which are charged only with the ordinaries, or with these 
primarily, other charges having been added. The bearings 
most generally admitted as ordinaries are the eight fol- 
lowing : bar, bend, chevron, chief, cross, fesse, pale, and 
saltire ; but most writers add one, some two, and others a 
greater number, namely one or more of the following : 
bend sinister, inescutcheon,quarterorfranc-quartier,pile, 
bordure. By some writers also the subordinaries and or- 
dinaries are considered together under one head. The 
ordinaries are often called honorable ordinaries, to distin- 
guish them from the subordinaries. 
Bends, chevrons, and bars are three of the somewhat 
numerous ordinanes, so called from their frequent use. 
Booke of Precedence (E. E. T. S., extra ser.), i. 97, note 2. 
10. In the navy: (n) The establishment of per- 
sons formerly employed by government to take 
charge of ships of war laid up in harbors, (b) 
The state of a ship not in actual service, but 
laid up under the charge of officers: as, a ship 
in ordinary (one laid up under the direction of 
the officers of a navy-yard or dockyard) Court 
Of ordinary, the name given in Georgia to a court hav- 
ing general probate jurisdiction. Court of the ordi- 
nary. See court. -Honorable ordinary. See def. 9. 
In ordinary, (a) In actual and constant service; statedly 
attending and serving : as, a physician or chaplain in or- 
dinary. An ambassador in ordinary is one constantly resi- 
dent at a foreign court. 
