2. The mass; the common run. [Obs.]
I see no more in you than in the ordinary Of
nature's salework. --Shak.
3. That which is so common, or continued, as to be considered
a settled establishment or institution. [R.]
Spain had no other wars save those which were grown
into an ordinary. --Bacon.
4. Anything which is in ordinary or common use.
Water buckets, wagons, cart wheels, plow socks, and
other ordinaries. --Sir W.
Scott.
5. A dining room or eating house where a meal is prepared for
all comers, at a fixed price for the meal, in distinction
from one where each dish is separately charged; a table
d'h[^o]te; hence, also, the meal furnished at such a
dining room. --Shak.
All the odd words they have picked up in a
coffeehouse, or a gaming ordinary, are produced as
flowers of style. --Swift.
He exacted a tribute for licenses to hawkers and
peddlers and to ordinaries. --Bancroft.
6. (Her.) A charge or bearing of simple form, one of nine or
ten which are in constant use. The bend, chevron, chief,
cross, fesse, pale, and saltire are uniformly admitted as
ordinaries. Some authorities include bar, bend sinister,
pile, and others. See {Subordinary}.
{In ordinary}.
(a) In actual and constant service; statedly attending and
serving; as, a physician or chaplain in ordinary. An
ambassador in ordinary is one constantly resident at a
foreign court.
(b) (Naut.) Out of commission and laid up; -- said of a
naval vessel.
{Ordinary of the Mass} (R. C. Ch.), the part of the Mass
which is the same every day; -- called also the {canon of
the Mass}.