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Ordinance - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
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Ordinance : (noun)
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]
Based on WordNet 2.0
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Ordinance : \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.
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.).
3. (Eccl.) An established rite or ceremony.
4. Rank; order; station. [Obs.] --Shak.
5. [See Ordnance.] Ordnance; cannon. [Obs.] --Shak.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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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
anOrdinance : 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).
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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