ordinary

A person with authority; authority, ordinance.; A person having immediate jurisdiction in a given case of ecclesiastical law, such as the bishop within a diocese.

A person with authority; authority, ordinance.; A courier; someone delivering mail or post.obsolete

• I […] will lay to till you come within hail […] but pray respond by the first ordinary.

A person with authority; authority, ordinance.; A judge with the authority to deal with cases himself or herself rather than by delegation.

A person with authority; authority, ordinance.; The chaplain of Newgate prison, who prepared condemned prisoners for death.historical

• He died with pious composure and resolution. I have just seen the Ordinary that attended him.

Something ordinary or regular.; Customary fare, one's regular daily allowance of food; (hence) a regular portion or allowance.obsolete

Something ordinary or regular.; A meal provided for a set price at an eating establishment.historical

• Here he recommended me to fix my board, there being an excellent ordinary daily at two o'clock, at which I might dine or not as I pleased.

Something ordinary or regular.; A place where such meals are served; a public tavern, inn.archaichistorical

• Vpon feſtiuall daies he goes to Court, and ſalutes vvithout re-ſaluting: at night in an Ordinarie he confeſſeth the buſineſſe in hand, and ſeemes as converſant vvith all intents and plots, as if he begot them.
• He enjoyed a perpetual port duty of fourteen pence a ton, on vessels not owned in the province, yielding not far from five thousand dollars a year; and he exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and peddlers and to ordinaries.

Something ordinary or regular.; One of the standard geometric designs placed across the center of a coat of arms, such as a pale or fess.

Something ordinary or regular.; An ordinary person or thing; something commonplace.

• Spain had no other wars save those of the Low Countries, which were grown into an ordinary
• water-buckets, waggons, cart-wheels, plough-socks, shuttles, candlesticks, and other ordinaries

Something ordinary or regular.; The usual course of things; normal condition or health; a standard way of behaviour or action.IrelandScotland

• I ſee no more in you than in the ordinary / Of nature's ſalework.

Having regular jurisdiction; now only used in certain phrases.

Being part of the natural order of things; normal, customary, routine.

• On an ordinary day I wake up at nine o'clock, work for six hours, and then go to the gym.

Having no special characteristics or function; everyday, common, mundane; often deprecatory.

• I live a very ordinary life most of the time, but every year I spend a week in Antarctica.
• He looked so ordinary, I never thought he'd be capable of murder.

Bad or undesirable.AustraliaNew-Zealandcolloquial

• 1983 September 20, Bruce Stannard, Australia II Joins Our Greats, The Age, republished 2003, David Headon (editor), The Best Ever Australian Sports Writing: A 200 Year Collection, page 480, It was, in some ways a sad, almost pathetic sight
• 1961, Joanna White, quoted in 2005, A. James Hammerton, Alistair Thomson, Ten Pound Poms: Australia′s Invisible Migrants, page 80, For myself, I loved adventure and travelling. I′d already done quite a bit of travelling in Europe and — coul