ordinaries
ordinaries is the plural of ordinary.
Meaning of ordinary
Noun
ordinary (plural ordinaries)
- A person having immediate jurisdiction in a given case of ecclesiastical law, such as the bishop within a diocese.
- A courier; someone delivering mail or post.
- I […] will lay to till you come within hail […] but pray respond by the first ordinary.1819, Lord Byron, Letter, 15 May
- A judge with the authority to deal with cases himself or herself rather than by delegation.
- The chaplain of Newgate prison, who prepared condemned prisoners for death.
- He died with pious composure and resolution. I have just seen the Ordinary that attended him.1791, James Boswell, “(please specify the year)”, in James Boswell, editor, The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. […], London: […] Henry Baldwin, for Charles Dilly, […], →OCLC
- Customary fare, one's regular daily allowance of food; (hence) a regular portion or allowance.
- A meal provided for a set price at an eating establishment.
- In short, Mr. Jolter could give a very good account of the stages on the road, and […] was a connoisseur in ordinaries, from twelve to five and thirty livres […].1751, [Tobias] Smollett, chapter XLIII, in The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), London: Harrison and Co., […], →OCLC
Questions about ordinaries
- What is ordinaries the plural of?
- Ordinaries is the plural of ordinary.
Words near ordinaries in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: ordinaries (page history and authors); ordinary (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “ordinaries.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ordinaries. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.