c1350 (a1333) William of Shoreham Poems (1902) 56 Þe bisschopes blessynge, Forþ myd þe admynystracioun Þat he deþ atte ordynge [read ordrynge].

a1513 R. Fabyan New Cronycles Eng. & Fraunce (1516) I. ci. f. xli I passe ouer..the orderynge of the yongest sone called Clodoaldus.

a1549 A. Borde Fyrst Bk. Introd. Knowl. (?1555) i. (Appendix) sig. B.ii^v There meate..is marde and spylt for lacke of good ordring and dressynge.

1561 T. Norton tr. J. Calvin Inst. Christian Relig. iv. xix. f. 158 Layeing on of handes, which as I graunt in true and lawfull Orderings to be a Sacrament.

1667 C. Merret in Philos. Trans. (Royal Soc.) 2 455 The other two Trees, left without this ordering, had most of their fruit withered.

1699 Woman's Malice 5 At length taking upon himself the ordering of his Affairs, he resolved for Travel.

1732 G. Berkeley Alciphron I. iii. xiii. 194 We want Laws,..in one word, for the whole ordering of Life.

1759 S. Fielding Hist. Countess of Dellwyn II. iii. ix. 88 Sir Harry Cleveland has been so generous, as to desire me to contrive to defray the Expences of the Funeral..and to undertake the Ordering of it.

1828 W. Scott Fair Maid of Perth x, in Chron. Canongate 2nd Ser. III. 261 Directions about the encampment..and such other instructions as might be necessary to the proper ordering of the field.

1895 W. Besant In Deacon's Orders i. 2 This ordering, once accepted, is a life-sentence like a peerage.

1922 E. von Arnim Enchanted April (1989) viii. 108 Don't you see that if somebody else does the ordering it frees us?

1963 W. V. Quine Set Theory x. 231 Hausdorff's law that every partial ordering harbors a maximal ordering.

1990 Pract. Computing Sept. 87/2 A number of Compaq's products were hit by this backlog in ordering.

a1618 J. Sylvester Funeral Elegy in Wks. (1880) II. 291 O! Who so constant, but would grieve and grudge (If not a Christian) at th' All-ordering Judge.]

1678 R. Cudworth tr. Plato in True Intellect. Syst. Universe i. i. 26 An Ordering and Disposing Mind that was the Cause of all things.

1868 H. Alford Poet. Wks. 95 Benumb men's spirits; who in thrall endure Waiting the judgment of the ordering mind.

1898 G. Meredith Odes French Hist. 28 His ordering fingers point the dials to time their ranks.

1988 Lit. & Theol. 2 138 The ordering power of the notions is guided by the principle of perfection.

2000 Rev. Contemp. Fiction 20 1 One can track with great pleasure and affection the ordering disposition at work.