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Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. [Obs.] Spenser. They had made their ordinance Of victual, and of other purveyance. Chaucer.

Joint ordinance.

Disarrangement; disturbance. [Obs.] Chaucer.

Antecedent decree or determination. Shak.

Subordinacy; subordination. [Obs.] Dr. H. More. Sir W. Temple.

ruction; as, the abolition of slavery or the slave trade; the abolition of laws, decrees, ordinances, customs, taxes, debts, etc.

rity of the maker or his successor; to repeal; -- applied to the repeal of laws, decrees, ordinances, the abolition of customs, etc. Let us see whether the New Testament abrogates what we so frequently see in the Old. South. Whose laws, like those of the Medes and Persian, they can not alter or abrogate. Burke.…

A statute or ordinance in general. Specifically: (1) A statute regulating the weight, measure, and proportions of ingredients and the price of articles sold in the market; as, the assize of bread and other provisions; (2) A statute fixing the standard of weights and measures.

er. I submit myself unto this holy church of Christ, to be ever buxom and obedient to the ordinance of it. Foxe.

corporation for its own government. There was likewise a law to restrain the by-laws, or ordinances of corporations. Bacon. The law or institution; to which are added two by-laws, as a comment upon the general law. Addison.

An ordained minister; a man regularly authorized to peach the gospel, and administer its ordinances; in England usually restricted to a minister of the Established Church.

full privileges of the church, as in the Roman Catholic, the Episcopal Church, etc. This ordinance is called confirmation, because they who duly receive it are confirmed or strengthened for the fulfillment of their Christian duties, by the grace therein bestowed upon them. Hook.

An authoritative ordinance, regulation or enactment; especially, one made by a Roman emperor, or one affecting ecclesiastical doctrine or disipline; as, the constitutions of Justinian. The positive constutions of our own churches. Hooker. A constitution of Valentinian addressed to Olybrius, then prefect of Rome, for th…

Prohibition; a prohibitory ordinance. [Obs.] Severe defenses . . . against wearing any linen under a certain breadth. Sir W. Temple.

A collection or body of directions, rules, or ordinances; esp., a book of directions for the conduct of worship; as, the Directory used by the nonconformists instead of the Prayer Book.

A public command or ordinance by the sovereign power; the proclamation of a law made by an absolute authority, as if by the very act of announcement; a decree; as, the edicts of the Roman emperors; the edicts of the French monarch. It stands as an edict in destiny. Shak. Edict of Nantes (French Hist.), an edict issued…

, that, by means of prayer, they had attained to so perfect a state as to have no need of ordinances, sacraments, good works, etc.; -- called also Alumbrados, Perfectibilists, etc.

Established order, method, or custom; enactment; ordinance; permanent form of law or polity. The nature of our people, Our city's institutions. Shak.

Any edict, decree, order, ordinance, statute, resolution, judicial, decision, usage, etc., or recognized, and enforced, by the controlling authority.

The assent of the civil power to the promulgation of an ecclesiastical ordinance. Shipley. The king . . . annulled the royal placet. J. P. Peters.