Order /(?)/

1. Regular arrangement; any methodical or established succession or harmonious relation; method; system

   The side chambers were . . . thirty in order.

   Bright-harnessed angels sit in order serviceable.

   Good order is the foundation of all good things.

2. Right arrangement; a normal, correct, or fit condition; as, the house is in order; the machinery is out of order.
3. The customary mode of procedure; established system, as in the conduct of debates or the transaction of business; usage; custom; fashion.

   And, pregnant with his grander thought, Brought the old order into doubt.

4. Conformity with law or decorum; freedom from disturbance; general tranquillity; public quiet; as, to preserve order in a community or an assembly.
5. That which prescribes a method of procedure; a rule or regulation made by competent authority; as, the rules and orders of the senate.

   The church hath authority to establish that for an order at one time which at another time it may abolish.

6. A command; a mandate; a precept; a direction.

   Upon this new fright, an order was made by both houses for disarming all the papists in England.

7. Hence: A commission to purchase, sell, or supply goods; a direction, in writing, to pay money, to furnish supplies, to admit to a building, a place of entertainment, or the like; as, orders for blankets are large.

   In those days were pit orders -- beshrew the uncomfortable manager who abolished them.

8. A number of things or persons arranged in a fixed or suitable place, or relative position; a rank; a row; a grade; especially, a rank or class in society; a group or division of men in the same social or other position; also, a distinct character, kind, or sort; as, the higher or lower orders of society; talent of a high order.

   They are in equal order to their several ends.

   Various orders various ensigns bear.

   Which, to his order of mind, must have seemed little short of crime.

9. A body of persons having some common honorary distinction or rule of obligation; esp., a body of religious persons or aggregate of convents living under a common rule; as, the Order of the Bath; the Franciscan order.

   Find a barefoot brother out, One of our order, to associate me.

   The venerable order of the Knights Templars.

10. An ecclesiastical grade or rank, as of deacon, priest, or bishop; the office of the Christian ministry; -- often used in the plural; as, to take orders, or to take holy orders, that is, to enter some grade of the ministry.
11. The disposition of a column and its component parts, and of the entablature resting upon it, in classical architecture; hence (as the column and entablature are the characteristic features of classical architecture) a style or manner of architectural designing. (Arch.)
12. An assemblage of genera having certain important characters in common; as, the Carnivora and Insectivora are orders of Mammalia. (Nat. Hist.)
13. The placing of words and members in a sentence in such a manner as to contribute to force and beauty or clearness of expression. (Rhet.)
14. Rank; degree; thus, the order of a curve or surface is the same as the degree of its equation. (Math.)

    The best knowledge is that which is of greatest use in order to our eternal happiness.

    Whiles I take order for mine own affairs.

imp. & p. p. Ordered; p. pr. & vb. n. Ordering

1. To put in order; to reduce to a methodical arrangement; to arrange in a series, or with reference to an end. Hence, to regulate; to dispose; to direct; to rule.

   To him that ordereth his conversation aright.

   Warriors old with ordered spear and shield.

2. To give an order to; to command; as, to order troops to advance.
3. To give an order for; to secure by an order; as, to order a carriage; to order groceries.
4. To admit to holy orders; to ordain; to receive into the ranks of the ministry. (Eccl.)

   These ordered folk be especially titled to God.

   Persons presented to be ordered deacons.

1. To give orders; to issue commands.