Or"di*nance (?), n. [OE.
ordenance, OF. ordenance, F. ordonnance. See
Ordain, and cf. Ordnance, Ordonnance.]
1. Orderly arrangement; preparation;
provision. [Obs.] Spenser.
They had made their ordinance
Of victual, and of other purveyance.
Chaucer.
2. A rule established by authority; a
permanent rule of action; a statute, law, regulation, rescript, or
accepted usage; an edict or decree; esp., a local law enacted by a
municipal government; as, a municipal ordinance.
Thou wilt die by God's just
ordinance.
Shak.
By custom and the ordinance of
times.
Shak.
Walking in all the commandments and ordinances
of the Lord blameless.
Luke i. 6.
&fist; Acts of Parliament are sometimes called ordinances;
also, certain colonial laws and certain acts of Congress under
Confederation; as, the ordinance of 1787 for the government of
the territory of the United States northwest of the Ohio River; the
colonial ordinance of 1641, or 1647. This word is often used
in Scripture in the sense of a law or statute of sovereign power.
Ex. xv. 25. Num. x. 8. Ezra iii. 10. Its most
frequent application now in the United States is to laws and
regulations of municipal corporations. Wharton (Law
Dict.).
3. (Eccl.) An established rite or
ceremony.
4. Rank; order; station. [Obs.]
Shak.
5. [See Ordnance.] Ordnance;
cannon. [Obs.] Shak.
