or

Meanings

1. 1
   conj

   Connects at least two alternative words, phrases, clauses, sentences, etc., each of which could make a passage true.

   You may stay or go.

2. 2
   conj

   Otherwise (a consequence of the condition that the previous is false).

   It's raining! Come inside or you'll catch a cold!

3. 3
   conj

   Connects two equivalent names.

   The country Myanmar, or Burma

4. 4
   noun

   The gold or yellow tincture on a coat of arms.

   The metals are gold and silver, these being termed "or" and "argent".

5. 5
   prep

   Before; ere. Generally followed by "ever" or "e'er".

   Or euer the siluer corde be loosed, or the golden bowle be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountaine, or the wheele broken at the cisterne. Then shall the dust returne to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall returne vnto God who gaue it.

6. 6
   noun

   The binary operator inclusive or, true if one at least one of two inputs is true. In infix notation.

   The proof (Tables 9 and 10) of idempotence for both OR and AND follows from examining the definition of each operation under the constraint that both inputs have the same value.

7. 7
   noun

   Initialism of operating room.

   Max Fischer: I like your nurse's uniform, guy. -- Dr. Peter Flynn: These are O.R. scrubs. -- Max Fischer: Oh, are they?

8. 8
   noun

   a room in a hospital equipped for the performance of surgical operations

Etymology

From Middle English or; partially contracted from other, auther, from Old English āþor, āwþer, āhwæþer ("some, any, either"; > either); and partially from Middle English oththe, from Old English oþþe, from Proto-Germanic *efþau (“or”).