| 1. | (used to connect words, phrases, or clauses representing alternatives): books or magazines; to be or not to be. |
| 2. | (used to connect alternative terms for the same thing): the Hawaiian, or Sandwich, Islands. |
| 3. | (used in correlation): either … or; or … or; whether … or. |
| 4. | (used to correct or rephrase what was previously said): His autobiography, or rather memoirs, will soon be ready for publication. |
| 5. | otherwise; or else: Be here on time, or we'll leave without you. |
| 6. | Logic. the connective used in disjunction. |
| 1. | Law. on (one's own) recognizance. |
| 2. | operating room. |
| 3. | operations research. |
| 4. | Oregon (approved esp. for use with zip code). |
| 5. | owner's risk. |
| a suffix occurring in loanwords from Latin, directly or through Anglo-French, usually denoting a condition or property of things or persons, sometimes corresponding to qualitative adjectives ending in -id4 (ardor; honor; horror; liquor; pallor; squalor; torpor; tremor); a few other words that originally ended in different suffixes have been assimilated to this group (behavior; demeanor; glamour). |

| a suffix forming animate or inanimate agent nouns, occurring originally in loanwords from Anglo-French (debtor; lessor; tailor; traitor); it now functions in English as an orthographic variant of -er 1 , usually joined to bases of Latin origin, in imitation of borrowed Latin words containing the suffix -tor (and its alternant -sor). The association with Latinate vocabulary may impart a learned look to the resultant formations, which often denote machines or other less tangible entities which behave in an agentlike way: descriptor; plexor; projector; repressor; sensor; tractor. |
| owner's risk. |
| a specially equipped room, usually in a hospital, where surgical procedures are performed. Abbreviation: OR |

| op·er·at·ing room (ŏp'ə-rā'tĭng) n. Abbr. OR A room equipped for performing surgical operations. |
or 1 (ôr; ər when unstressed) conj.
[Middle English, from other, or (from Old English, from oththe) and from outher (from Old English āhwæther, āther; see either).] Usage Note: When all the elements in a series connected by or are singular, the verb they govern is singular: Tom or Jack is coming. Beer, ale, or wine is included in the charge. When all the elements are plural, the verb is plural. When the elements do not agree in number, some grammarians have suggested that the verb should agree in number with the nearest element: Tom or his sisters are coming. The girls or their brother is coming. Cold symptoms or headache is the usual first sign. Other grammarians, however, have argued that such constructions are inherently illogical and that the only solution is to revise the sentence to avoid the problem of agreement: Either Tom is coming or his sisters are. The usual first sign may be either cold symptoms or a headache. See Usage Notes at and/or, either, neither, nor1. |
| OR 2 abbr.
|
operating room n.
A room equipped for performing surgical operations.
OR logic
The Boolean function which is true if any of its arguments are true. Its truth table is:
A | B | A OR B --+---+--------- F | F | F F | T | T T | F | T T | T | T
(1996-11-04)
| or Oriya |
OR
|