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Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

working order en · NOUN

Pronunciation

  • (General-American) audio

Meanings

  1. (especially, of machinery, uncountable) The state or condition of being operational or of functioning acceptably.
    • The engine was in working order. 1908, H. G. Wells, chapter 10, in The War in the Air:
    • [T]he Commission got itself into systematic working order, and for weeks the contributions flowed into its treasury in a generous stream. 1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XLV, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company [et al.], published 1872, →OCLC, page 315:
    • Each coach on the Swedish Yoa2 is 57ft long and 10ft 4in wide; with its two traction motors the unit weighs 79 tons in working order and has a maximum speed of under 60 m.p.h. 1961 January, “The latest in Continental electric multiple-units and their operation”, in Trains Illustrated, page 47:
    • The Pentagon's plans assumed that Iraq's industrial base and utilities were in working order. 2003 September 22, Unmesh Kher, “3 Flawed Assumptions About Postwar Iraq”, in Time:
    • The locomotive stock consists of three of the six original American-built 4-6-0 tanks, named Bridget, Peggy, and Hummy, all in clean condition and good working order; [...]. 1944 January and February, “Light Railways in Derbyshire”, in Railway Magazine, page 25:
    • The Hedjaz Railway is best known for its connections to T. E. Lawrence, whose fame as "El Orens", the railway wrecker, spread quickly throughout Arabia. He arrived at Yenbo in December, 1916, and immediately started his campaign to sabotage the railway, but to keep it sufficiently in working order to allow supplies to reach Medina. 1956 March, R. C. Blaker, “The Hedjaz Railway”, in Railway Magazine, pages 166-167:
    • Upstream from the house is a watermill, cased in gleaming white weather-boarding, which has been restored to working order. Near by is the water-driven turbine which [Rudyard] Kipling had installed in 1902 to light his mansion with electricity. 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 98:

Relateds

out of order

Translations (5)

pl sprawność (state or condition of being operational) · fr en état de marche (state or condition of being operational) · cmn 正常工作 (state or condition of being operational) · fi käyttökunto (state or condition of being operational) · cmn 正常運轉狀態 /正常运转状态 (state or condition of being operational)