out of order

Prepositional phrase

1. (idiomatic) Out of normal sequence.
   • You've got my index cards out of order again.

   Antonyms:

   in order

2. (idiomatic) Not functioning properly; not in working order.
   • The lift is always out of order.
   • With the lift in the block still out of order, they climbed the flights and flights of steps. When Dad finally put the key in the front door, both were weary beyond words.2017, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN

   Synonyms:

   out of commission

   Antonyms:

   in commission

3. (idiomatic) Inappropriate or unsuitable.
   • I suppose my remarks about his wife were out of order.

   Synonyms:

   out of line

4. Not in order: not according with e.g. the procedural rules governing formal meetings of a deliberative body.
5. untidy
   • Architas Tarentinus returning from a war, where he had beene Captaine generall, found his house all out of order, husbandrie all spoiled, and by the ill government of his Bailife, his ground all waste and unmanured […]., II.31