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.
Hear it pronounced