- or
- [[t]ə(r), STRONG ɔː(r)[/t]]
♦1) CONJ-COORD You use or to link two or more alternatives.
`Tea or coffee?' John asked...
Was she blonde or brunette?...
Spread the inside of the loaf with olive paste or pesto sauce for extra flavour...
He said he would try to write or call as soon as he reached the Canary Islands...
Students are asked to take another course in English, or science, or mathematics.
2) CONJ-COORD You use or to give another alternative, when the first alternative is introduced by `either' or `whether'.Items like bread, milk and meat were either unavailable or could be obtained only on the black market...
Either you can talk to him, or I will...
I don't know whether people will buy it or not...
I am not sure whether I was knocked over by the blast or whether I just fell...
The bathroom has taken a lot longer to get right than either Elaine or Dennis had envisaged.
3) CONJ-COORD You use or between two numbers to indicate that you are giving an approximate amount.Everyone benefited from limiting their intake of tea to just three or four cups a day...
When I was nine or ten someone explained to me that when you are grown up you have to work...
Normally he asked questions, and had a humorous remark or two.
4) CONJ-COORD You use or to introduce a comment which corrects or modifies what you have just said.The man was a fool, he thought, or at least incompetent...
There was nothing more he wanted, or so he thought...
That was sporting of him. Or should I say cowardly...
She was aware of tension between them. Or had it been there from the beginning?
5) CONJ-COORD If you say that someone should do something or something unpleasant will happen, you are warning them that if they do not do it, the unpleasant thing will happen.She had to have the operation, or she would die.
Syn:6) CONJ-COORD You use or to introduce something which is evidence for the truth of a statement you have just made.He must have thought Jane was worth it or he wouldn't have wasted time on her, I suppose.
Syn:7) PHRASE: group PHR (emphasis) You use or no or or not to emphasize that a particular thing makes no difference to what is going to happen.Chairman or no, if I want to stop the project, I can...
The first difficulty is that, old-fashioned or not, it is very good.
8) PHRASE: n PHR n You use or no between two occurrences of the same noun in order to say that whether something is true or not makes no difference to a situation.The next day, rain or no rain, it was business as usual...
Oil or no oil, Serbia has troubles.
English dictionary. 2008.
