Ordinance

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Ordinance \Or"di*nance\, n. [OE. ordenance, OF. ordenance, F.
     ordonnance. See {Ordain}, and cf. {Ordnance}, {Ordonnance}.]
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     1. Orderly arrangement; preparation; provision. [Obs.]
        --Spenser.
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              They had made their ordinance
              Of victual, and of other purveyance.  --Chaucer.
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     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.
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              Thou wilt die by God's just ordinance. --Shak.
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              By custom and the ordinance of times. --Shak.
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              Walking in all the commandments and ordinances of
              the Lord blameless.                   --Luke i. 6.
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     Note: 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.).
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     3. (Eccl.) An established rite or ceremony.
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     4. Rank; order; station. [Obs.] --Shak.
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     5. [See {Ordnance}.] Ordnance; cannon. [Obs.] --Shak.
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From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  ordinance
       n 1: an authoritative rule [syn: {regulation}]
       2: a statute enacted by a city government
       3: the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving)
          holy orders; "the rabbi's family was present for his
          ordination" [syn: {ordination}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  90 Moby Thesaurus words for "ordinance":
     act, appointment, bill, brevet, bull, bylaw, canon, ceremonial,
     ceremony, code, commandment, convention, declaration, decree,
     decree-law, decreement, decretal, decretum, dictate, dictation,
     dictum, diktat, duty, edict, edictum, enactment, fiat, form,
     form of worship, formality, formula, formulary, function,
     general principle, golden rule, guideline, guiding principle,
     holy rite, imperative, institution, ipse dixit, jus, law,
     legislation, lex, liturgy, maxim, measure, mitzvah,
     mode of worship, moral, mystery, norm, observance, office,
     order of worship, ordonnance, practice, precept, prescribed form,
     prescript, prescription, principium, principle, proclamation,
     pronouncement, pronunciamento, regulation, rescript, rite, ritual,
     ritual observance, rituality, rubric, rule, ruling, sacrament,
     sacramental, senatus consult, senatus consultum, service,
     settled principle, solemnity, standard, standing order, statute,
     tenet, ukase, working principle, working rule
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  ORDINANCE, legislation. A law, a statute, a decree.
       2. This word is more usually applied to the laws of a corporation, than 
  to the acts of the legislature; as the ordinances of the city of 
  Philadelphia. The following account of the difference between a statute and 
  an ordinance is extracted from Bac. Ab. Statute, A. "Where the proceeding 
  consisted only of a petition from parliament, and an answer from the king, 
  these were entered on the parliament roll; and if the matter was of a public 
  nature, the whole was then styled an ordinance; if, however, the petition 
  and answer were not only of a public, but a novel nature, they were then 
  formed into an act by the king, with the aid of his council and judges, and 
  entered on the statute roll." See Harg. & But. Co. Litt. l59 b, notis; 3 
  Reeves, Hist. Eng. Law, 146. 
       3. According to Lord Coke, the difference between a statute and an 
  ordinance is, that the latter has not had the assent of the king, lords, and 
  commons, but is made merely by two of those powers. 4 Inst. 25. See Barr. on 
  Stat. 41, note (x).