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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Ordinary

Ôr' di-na-ry, a.

adjective

(44), a. [Lat. ordinarius, from ordo, ordinis, order; Fr. ordinaire, Pr. ordinari, Sp. & It. ordinario.]

Sense 1. According to established order; methodical; regular; customary; as, the ordinary forms of law or justice.

Sense 2. Of common rank; not distinguished by superior excellence; as, an ordinary reader; men of ordinary judgment.

An ordinary lad would have acquired little or no useful knowledge in such a way. Macaulay.

Sense 3. Common; usual.

Method is not less requisite in ordinary conversation than in writing. Addison.

Sense 4. Hence, inferior; of little merit; as, the book is an ordinary performance.

Sense 5. Plain; not handsome; as, an ordinary woman; a person of an ordinary form; an ordinary face.

Ordinary seaman (Naut.), one not expert or fully skilled, and hence ranking below a seaman.

Synonyms—Normal; common; usual; customary. 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 orderly or regular succession of events; as, the ordinary course. When used in the sense of inferior, ordinary marks a want of that which distinguishes; as, an ordinary face; common denotes the want of that which attracts or interests. “It was long the common opinion that the sun turned round the earth. It is the ordinary employment of astronomers to observe the motions of the heavenly bodies. A man of ordinary understanding need not be misled by false reasoning. A common mind busies itself with common objects.” Crabb.

Ōr'di-na-ry, n.

noun

(sometimes colloq. ôrd'na-rŷ), n.

  1. (Law.) (a.) (Civil Law.) An officer who has original jurisdiction in his own right, and not by deputation. (b.) (English Law.) One who has immediate jurisdiction in matters ecclesiastical; an ecclesiastical judge; a deputy of the bishop, anciently appointed to give malefactors their neck verses, also to perform divine service for them and assist in preparing them for death. The term is still applied to the clergyman who performs the latter offices for condemned criminals. (c.) (Am. Law.) A judicial officer, having generally the powers of a judge of probate or surrogate. Wharton. Burrill.
  2. That which is so common, or continued, as to be considered a permanent establishment or institution. [Rare.]

Spain had no other wars save those which were grown into an ordinary. Bacon.

  1. Hence, that which is in common use. “Water-buckets, wagons, cart-wheels, plough-socks, and other ordinaries.” W. Scott.
  2. A dining-room or eating-house where there is a fixed price for the meal, in distinction from one where each dish is separately charged; a table d’hote; hence, also, the meal furnished at such a dining-room.

All the odd words they have picked up in a coffee-house, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as flowers of style. Swift. And, for his ordinary, pays his heart For what his eyes eat only. Shak.

  1. (Naval Usage.) The establishment of the shipping not in actual service, but laid up under the charge of officers; as, a ship laid up in ordinary.
  2. (Her.) A portion of the escutcheon comprised between straight or other lines. It is the simplest species of charge.

The ordinaries proper, called also honorable or greater ordinaries, are nine in number, namely, the chief, pale, bend, bend sinister, fess, bar, chevron, cross, and saltier. The name is also applied to the lesser ordinaries, or sub-ordinaries, such as the gyron, pile, orle, tressure, &c., and also, sometimes, to other charges. In ordinary, 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.