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OR   /ɔr/  /ər/   Listen
conjunction
Or  conj.  A particle that marks an alternative; as, you may read or may write, that is, you may do one of the things at your pleasure, but not both. It corresponds to either. You may ride either to London or to Windsor. It often connects a series of words or propositions, presenting a choice of either; as, he may study law, or medicine, or divinity, or he may enter into trade. "If man's convenience, health, Or safety interfere, his rights and claims Are paramount." Note: Or may be used to join as alternatives terms expressing unlike things or ideas (as, is the orange sour or sweet?), or different terms expressing the same thing or idea; as, this is a sphere, or globe. Note: Or sometimes begins a sentence. In this case it expresses an alternative or subjoins a clause differing from the foregoing. "Or what man is there of you, who, if his son shall ask him for a loaf, will give him a stone?" Or for either is archaic or poetic. "Maugre thine heed, thou must for indigence Or steal, or beg, or borrow thy dispence."



noun
Or  n.  (Her.) Yellow or gold color, represented in drawing or engraving by small dots.



preposition
Or  prep., adv.  Ere; before; sooner than. (Obs.) "But natheless, while I have time and space, Or that I forther in this tale pace."
Or ever, Or ere. See under Ever, and Ere.



suffix
-or  suff.  
1.
A noun suffix denoting an act; a state or quality; as in error, fervor, pallor, candor, etc.
2.
A noun suffix denoting an agent or doer; as in auditor, one who hears; donor, one who gives; obligor, elevator. It is correlative to -ee. In general -or is appended to words of Latin, and -er to those of English, origin. See -er.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Or" Quotes from Famous Books



... gone two or three hours. At length, when the sun had nearly gone down, Mary heard voices in the front of the house. She left her back window, and went around to a front window to see. She found them returning, and all talking together with the greatest volubility. They had their ...
— Rollo's Museum • Jacob Abbott

... the prevalence of his passion, as people sputter out nonsense for haste when they are in a rage. And indeed I believe this piece before me has received some additional imperfections from that occasion. But whoever has heard his sermons, or read his other tracts, will find him very unhappy in his choice and disposition of his words, and, for want of variety, repeating them, especially the particles, in a manner very grating to an English ...
— The Prose Works of Jonathan Swift, Vol. III.: Swift's Writings on Religion and the Church, Vol. I. • Jonathan Swift

... it on the back of a marble elephant, the work of his pupil Ferrata; on account of which absurd incongruity Bernini received from the satirical Roman populace the nickname of "The Elephant." Only one obelisk in Rome was not restored or re-erected by any Pope, viz. that which stands in the beautiful grounds of the Villa Mattei in the Coelian Hill. It was found near the Capitol on the site of an ancient temple of Isis, and was presented by the magistrates to the owner of the villa, ...
— Roman Mosaics - Or, Studies in Rome and Its Neighbourhood • Hugh Macmillan

... after the cup, but he could not grasp it. The cup swam away from his reach. He grasped impatiently at the amber handle now with his right hand, now with his left; but the handle, quickly turning to the left or to the right, as if but mocking the king, could not be caught. What was the matter? The king waited until the cup stood up again straight in the water, grasped it at once from the right and the left, but in vain! Slipping out from his hands like a fish, the cup dived ...
— Stories to Read or Tell from Fairy Tales and Folklore • Laure Claire Foucher

... cries came the Earl of Limours, and they who journeyed with him, whom her lamentations brought out of their road. And the earl said to Enid, "Alas, lady, what hath befallen thee?" "Ah, good sir," said she, "the only man I have loved, or ever shall love, is slain." Then he said to the other, "And what is the cause of thy grief?" "They have slain my beloved husband also," said she. "And who was it that slew them?" "Some giants," she answered, "slew my best-beloved, and the other knight went ...
— Bulfinch's Mythology • Thomas Bulfinch


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