ORDINANCE • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Ordinance

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/ˈɔrdənəns/ Listen

noun

Ordinance n.

Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. (Obs.) "They had made their ordinance Of victual, and of other purveyance."

A rule established by authority; a permanent rule of action; a statute, law, regulation, rescript, or accepted usage; an edict or decree; esp., a local law enacted by a municipal government; as, a municipal ordinance. "Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance." "By custom and the ordinance of times." "Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of the Lord blameless." Note: Acts of Parliament are sometimes called ordinances; also, certain colonial laws and certain acts of Congress under Confederation; as, the ordinance of 1787 for the government of the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River; the colonial ordinance of 1641, or 1647. This word is often used in Scripture in the sense of a law or statute of sovereign power. Its most frequent application now in the United States is to laws and regulations of municipal corporations.

(Eccl.) An established rite or ceremony.

Rank; order; station. (Obs.)

Ordnance; cannon. (Obs.)

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Etymology of 'Ordinance'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ordinance" Quotes from Famous Books

... restlessly about the ward, till one of the men, I forget who, asked me to sing to them. It had become a standing ordinance of the place; and people said, a very beneficial one. But to-night I had not thought I could sing. Yet when he asked me, the power came. I did not sit down 'as usual;' standing at the foot of Mr. Thorold's bed I sang, leaning hard against strength and love out of sight; and my voice ...

— Daisy in the Field • Elizabeth Wetherell

... was on a hill in the midst of a walnut grove. Its roof was green with moss and its sides gray and yellow. Many a storm had swept over this old pile of wood. In it the ordinance of secession had been read. Knives flashed, pistols barked, and blood was poured out upon the floor. Old Oliver's horses ate their oats at the marble altar of an ancient cathedral; and within these log walls, and at this long slab, this mourners' bench, ...

— The Starbucks • Opie Percival Read

... wakefulness." He answered, "O Prince of True Believers, wilt thou walk in the palace-garden and divert thyself with the sight of its blooms and gaze upon the stars and constellations and note the beauty of their ordinance and the moon among them rising in sheen over the water?" Quoth the Caliph, "O Masrur, my heart inclineth not to aught of this." Quoth he, "O my lord, there are in thy palace three hundred concubines, each of whom hath her separate chamber. Do ...

— The Book of the Thousand Nights and a Night, Volume 4 • Richard F. Burton

... forte and habitation thereof four brasse pieces each weighing about 150 lbs. weight, another piece of brasse ordinance weighing eighty lbs. weight, five iron boxes of shot, for the five brasse pieces of ordinance; two small iron pieces of ordinances weighing each eight cwt. six murderers with their double boxes or chargers, one small piece of ordinance weighing ...

— Picturesque Quebec • James MacPherson Le Moine

... advantage. It would have been easy for him to recognize the humanity of Durham's policy, and to join with the government in legislating away any technical illegalities that may have existed in Durham's ordinance; but Wellington could not resist the temptation to embarrass the Whig {111} administration, regardless of the injury which he might be doing to the ...

— The 'Patriotes' of '37 - A Chronicle of the Lower Canada Rebellion • Alfred D. Decelles

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