[syn: average, ordinary]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ordinary \Or"di*na*ry\, n.; pl. Ordinaries (-r[i^]z).
1. (Law)
(a) (Roman Law) An officer who has original jurisdiction
in his own right, and not by deputation.
(b) (Eng. Law) One who has immediate jurisdiction in
matters ecclesiastical; an ecclesiastical judge; also,
a deputy of the bishop, or a clergyman appointed to
perform divine service for condemned criminals and
assist in preparing them for death.
(c) (Am. Law) A judicial officer, having generally the
powers of a judge of probate or a surrogate.
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2. The mass; the common run. [Obs.]
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I see no more in you than in the ordinary
Of nature's salework. --Shak.
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3. That which is so common, or continued, as to be considered
a settled establishment or institution. [R.]
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Spain had no other wars save those which were grown
into an ordinary. --Bacon.
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4. Anything which is in ordinary or common use.
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Water buckets, wagons, cart wheels, plow socks, and
other ordinaries. --Sir W.
Scott.
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5. A dining room or eating house where a meal is prepared for
all comers, at a fixed price for the meal, in distinction
from one where each dish is separately charged; a table
d'h[^o]te; hence, also, the meal furnished at such a
dining room. --Shak.
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All the odd words they have picked up in a
coffeehouse, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as
flowers of style. --Swift.
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He exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and
peddlers and to ordinaries. --Bancroft.
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6. (Her.) A charge or bearing of simple form, one of nine or
ten which are in constant use. The bend, chevron,
chief, cross, fesse, pale, and saltire are
uniformly admitted as ordinaries. Some authorities include
bar, bend sinister, pile, and others. See Subordinary.
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In ordinary.
(a) In actual and constant service; statedly attending and
serving; as, a physician or chaplain in ordinary. An
ambassador in ordinary is one constantly resident at a
foreign court.
(b) (Naut.) Out of commission and laid up; -- said of a
naval vessel.
Ordinary of the Mass (R. C. Ch.), the part of the Mass
which is the same every day; -- called also the canon of
the Mass.
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The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ordinary \Or"di*na*ry\, a. [L. ordinarius, fr. ordo, ordinis,
order: cf. F. ordinaire. See Order.]
1. According to established order; methodical; settled;
regular. "The ordinary forms of law." --Addison.
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2. Common; customary; usual. --Shak.
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Method is not less requisite in ordinary
conversation that in writing. --Addison.
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3. Of common rank, quality, or ability; not distinguished by
superior excellence or beauty; hence, not distinguished in
any way; commonplace; inferior; of little merit; as, men
of ordinary judgment; an ordinary book.
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An ordinary lad would have acquired little or no
useful knowledge in such a way. --Macaulay.
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Ordinary seaman (Naut.), one not expert or fully skilled,
and hence ranking below an able seaman.
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Syn: Normal; common; usual; customary.
Usage: See Normal. -- Ordinary, Common. A thing is
common in which many persons share or partake; as, a
common practice. A thing is ordinary when it is apt to
come round in the regular common order or succession
of events.
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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
ordinary
adj 1: not exceptional in any way especially in quality or
ability or size or degree; "ordinary everyday objects";
"ordinary decency"; "an ordinary day"; "an ordinary wine"
[ant: extraordinary]
2: lacking special distinction, rank, or status; commonly
encountered; "average people"; "the ordinary (or common) man
in the street" [syn: average, ordinary]
n 1: a judge of a probate court
2: the expected or commonplace condition or situation; "not out
of the ordinary"
3: a clergyman appointed to prepare condemned prisoners for
death
4: an early bicycle with a very large front wheel and small back
wheel [syn: ordinary, ordinary bicycle]
5: (heraldry) any of several conventional figures used on
shields
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
364 Moby Thesaurus words for "ordinary":
American plan, Attic, Babbittish, European plan, JA, Philistine,
a la carte, accepted, accustomed, achievement, alerion,
amicus curiae, animal charge, annulet, argent, armorial bearings,
armory, arms, assessor, average, azure, banal, bandeau, bar,
bar sinister, barmaster, baseborn, baton, bearings, below the salt,
bend, bend sinister, besetting, billet, bizarre, blazon, blazonry,
boardinghouse, bordure, bourgeois, broad arrow, cadency mark,
campy, canton, central, chancellor, chaplet, charge, chaste,
chevron, chief, circuit judge, classic, classical, coat of arms,
cockatrice, cockney, common, commonplace, conformable,
consuetudinary, convention, conventional, coronet, couvert, cover,
cover charge, crescent, crest, cross, cross moline, crown, curious,
current, customary, demeaning, device, difference, differencing,
different, disadvantaged, dominant, dorm, dormitory, doss house,
dull, eagle, eccentric, epidemic, ermine, ermines, erminites,
erminois, escutcheon, established, everyday, exceptional, expected,
extraordinary, fair, falcon, familiar, fess, fess point, field,
file, flanch, flat, fleabag, fleur-de-lis, flophouse, frequent,
frequentative, fret, fur, fusil, garden, garden variety,
garden-variety, garland, general, generally accepted, griffin,
guest house, gules, gyron, habitual, hatchment, helmet,
heraldic device, high-camp, homely, homespun, honor point, hospice,
hostel, hostelry, hotel, household, humble, humdrum, impalement,
impaling, in the shade, inescutcheon, inferior, infra dig, inn,
insipid, intermediary, intermediate, judge advocate,
judge ordinary, junior, jurat, justice in eyre, justice of assize,
kitschy, label, lay judge, legal assessor, less, lesser, lion,
lodging house, low, low-camp, lowborn, lowbred, lower, lowly,
lozenge, mantling, many, many times, marshaling, martlet, mascle,
master, matter-of-fact, mean, medial, median, mediocre, medium,
metal, middle-class, middle-of-the-road, middling, military judge,
minor, moderate, modest, motto, mullet, mundane, natural,
no great shakes, nombril point, nonclerical, nondescript, norm,
normal, normative, not rare, obtaining, octofoil, odd,
of common occurrence, offbeat, oft-repeated, oftentime, ombudsman,
or, original, orle, outlandish, pale, paly, pandemic, passable,
pean, peasant, peculiar, pedestrian, pension, pheon, picturesque,
plain, plastic, plebeian, poetryless, police judge, pop, popular,
posada, predominant, predominating, prescribed, prescriptive,
presiding judge, prevailing, prevalent, probate judge, prosaic,
prosing, prosy, provincial, pub, public, public house,
puisne judge, pure, pure and simple, purpure, quaint, quarter,
quartering, quotidian, rampant, rare, received, recorder,
recurrent, regnant, regular, regulation, reigning, rife, roadhouse,
rooming house, rose, routine, rude, ruling, run-of-mine,
run-of-the-mill, running, sable, saltire, scutcheon, second rank,
second string, secondary, self-service, service, servile, set,
shabby-genteel, shield, simple, singular, so so, spread eagle,
standard, status quo, stereotyped, stock, strange, striking, sub,
subaltern, subject, subordinary, subordinate, subservient,
suburban, tavern, tenne, the common, the commonplace, the normal,
the ordinary, the usual, thick-coming, third rank, third string,
third-estate, time-honored, tincture, tiresome, torse, traditional,
tressure, typical, uncommon, unconventional, underprivileged,
undistinguished, unembellished, uneventful, unexceptional,
unexpected, unfamiliar, ungenteel, unicorn, unidealistic,
unimaginative, unimpassioned, uninspired, unique, universal,
unnoteworthy, unpoetic, unpretentious, unrefined, unremarkable,
unromantic, unspectacular, unusual, usual, vair, vapid, vernacular,
vert, vice-chancellor, vulgar, weird, widespread, wonted, workaday,
workday, wreath, yale
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
ORDINARY, civil and eccl. law. An officer who has original jurisdiction in
his own right and not by deputation.
2. In England the ordinary is an officer who has immediate jurisdiction
in ecclesiastical causes. Co. Litt. 344.
3. In the United States, the ordinary possesses, in those states where
such officer exists, powers vested in him by the constitution and acts of
the legislature, In South Carolina, the ordinary is a judicial officer. 1
Rep. Const. Ct. 26; 2 Rep. Const. Ct. 384.