Or"di*na*ry (?), a. [L.
ordinarius, fr. ordo, ordinis, order: cf. F.
ordinaire. See Order.] 1.
According to established order; methodical; settled;
regular. "The ordinary forms of law."
Addison.
2. Common; customary; usual.
Shak.
Method is not less reguisite in ordinary
conversation that in writing.
Addison.
3. Of common rank, quality, or ability; not
distinguished by superior excellence or beauty; hence, not
distinguished in any way; commonplace; inferior; of little merit; as,
men of ordinary judgment; an ordinary book.
An ordinary lad would have acquired little or
no useful knowledge in such a way.
Macaulay.
Ordinary seaman (Naut.), one not
expert or fully skilled, and hence ranking below an able
seaman.
Syn. -- 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 regular common order or succession of events.
Or"di*na*ry, n.; pl.
Ordinaries (-r&ibreve;z). 1.
(Law) (a) (Roman Law) An officer
who has original jurisdiction in his own right, and not by
deputation. (b) (Eng. Law) One who
has immediate jurisdiction in matters ecclesiastical; an
ecclesiastical judge; also, a deputy of the bishop, or a clergyman
appointed to perform divine service for condemned criminals and
assist in preparing them for death. (c) (Am.
Law) A judicial officer, having generally the powers of a
judge of probate or a surrogate.
2. The mass; the common run. [Obs.]
I see no more in you than in the ordinary
Of nature's salework.
Shak.
3. That which is so common, or continued, as
to be considered a settled establishment or institution.
[R.]
Spain had no other wars save those which were grown
into an ordinary.
Bacon.
4. Anything which is in ordinary or common
use.
Water buckets, wagons, cart wheels, plow socks, and
other ordinaries.
Sir W. Scott.
5. A dining room or eating house where a meal
is prepared for all comers, at a fixed price for the meal, in
distinction from one where each dish is separately charged; a table
d'hôte; hence, also, the meal furnished at such a dining
room. Shak.
All the odd words they have picked up in a
coffeehouse, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as flowers of
style.
Swift.
He exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and
peddlers and to ordinaries.
Bancroft.
6. (Her.) A charge or bearing of
simple form, one of nine or ten which are in constant use. The
bend, chevron, chief, cross,
fesse, pale, and saltire are uniformly admitted
as ordinaries. Some authorities include bar, bend
sinister, pile, and others. See
Subordinary.
In ordinary. (a) 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. (b)
(Naut.) Out of commission and laid up; -- said of a naval
vessel. -- Ordinary of the Mass (R. C.
Ch.), the part of the Mass which is the same every day; --
called also the canon of the Mass.
