marching orders
11
4.9
- noun
- /ˈmɑːrʧɪŋ ˈɔrdərz/
:
órdenes
- The team gathered in the conference room to receive their marching orders for the upcoming project.
- get marching orders
- give marching orders
- receive marching orders
So pay very close attention to how much this guy gets his marching orders from his family.
- So pay very close attention to how much this guy gets his marching orders from his family.
- There's, there's nothing like actually after you've been taking sort of marching orders from other people doing something on your own.
- If you're talking to idealists and activists who want to do something, give them some marching orders about post November, how they can effect some change.
- I mean, it was, you know, during that phase of the war, your your marching orders were killer capture.
- I think I've had a good run of getting AOC to take her marching orders.
- So my marching orders to Goodell was fixed this to the players and owner satisfaction.
Examples
-
After the briefing, the manager handed out marching orders to each department outlining their tasks.
-
The government in DC gets its money, power, and marching orders from Wall St.
Blog text (27) -
Okay, you have your marching orders.
-
Our new marching orders are these:
-
I'll do it until I get new marching orders.
Blog text (28) -
The Mayor has given the Prophet his marching orders.
Fiction book (1993) -
What's she supposed to do when her boss gives the marching orders?
Blog text (13) -
We've been given our marching orders.
-
The team was given its marching orders Friday by Gen. Ray Odierno, the Army chief of staff.
Blog text (28) -
Looks like Tanner's been getting his marching orders directly from Haney.
Synonyms
∞
3.0
An instruction from someone in power that must be followed
180
2.0
An official instruction telling someone what to do
128
6.1
An official instruction from a government or organization
An instruction that a military leader gives every day to people under their command
How Forceful
Surface Forms
Morphology
The components 'march' (to walk in organized formation) and 'order' (a command) transparently suggest a command to move or leave, so a learner could infer a literal sense of being told to go. However, the conventional figurative meaning — specifically dismissal from a job or being told to leave a situation — is an idiomatic extension of that literal image and is not fully predictable without prior exposure.
Etymology
Marching orders comes from a military image: a leader gave clear orders telling soldiers when to start marching, so the phrase became a strong picture for 'official instructions' to begin a task or move.