Chapter Optically to Orangeroot of O by Webster's Dictionary (1913 Edition)

Or for either is archaic or poetic.

Maugre thine heed, thou must for indigence
Or steal, or beg, or borrow thy dispence.

Chaucer.

Or
(Or), prep. & adv. [AS. r ere, before. &radic204. See Ere, prep. & adv.] Ere; before; sooner than. [Obs.]

But natheless, while I have time and space,
Or that I forther in this tale pace.

Chaucer.

Or ever, Or ere. See under Ever, and Ere.

Or
(Or), n. [F., fr. L. aurum gold. Cf. Aureate.] (Her.) Yellow or gold color, — represented in drawing or engraving by small dots.

Ora
(O"ra) n. [AS. See 2d Ore.] A money of account among the Anglo-Saxons, valued, in the Domesday Book, at twenty pence sterling.

Orabassu
(||O`ra*bas"su) n. (Zoöl.) A South American monkey of the genus Callithrix, esp. C. Moloch.

Orach
(Or"ach, Or"ache) n. [F. arroche, corrupted fr. L. atriplex, Gr. . Cf. Arrach.] (Bot.) A genus (Atriplex) of herbs or low shrubs of the Goosefoot family, most of them with a mealy surface.

Garden orache, a plant (Atriplex hortensis), often used as a pot herb; — also called mountain spinach.

Oracle
(Or"a*cle) n. [F., fr. L. oraculum, fr. orare to speak, utter, pray, fr. os, oris, mouth. See Oral.]

1. The answer of a god, or some person reputed to be a god, to an inquiry respecting some affair or future event, as the success of an enterprise or battle.

Whatso'er she saith, for oracles must stand.

Drayton.

2. Hence: The deity who was supposed to give the answer; also, the place where it was given.

The oracles are dumb;
No voice or hideous hum
Runs through the arched roof in words deceiving.

Milton.

3. The communications, revelations, or messages delivered by God to the prophets; also, the entire sacred Scriptures — usually in the plural.

The first principles of the oracles of God.

Heb. v. 12.

4. (Jewish Antiq.) The sanctuary, or Most Holy place in the temple; also, the temple itself. 1 Kings vi. 19.

Siloa's brook, that flow'd
Fast by the oracle of God.

Milton.

5. One who communicates a divine command; an angel; a prophet.

God hath now sent his living oracle
Into the world to teach his final will.

Milton.

6. Any person reputed uncommonly wise; one whose decisions are regarded as of great authority; as, a literary oracle. "Oracles of mode." Tennyson.

The country rectors . . . thought him an oracle on points of learning.

Macaulay.

7. A wise sentence or decision of great authority.

Oracle
(Or"a*cle), v. i. [imp. & p. p. Oracled ; p. pr. & vb. n. Oracling ] To utter oracles. [Obs.]