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.]