out of order

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

out of order

1. (idiomatic) Out of normal sequence.

   Antonym: in order

   You've got my index cards out of order again.

2. (idiomatic) Not functioning properly.

   Synonyms: out of commission; see also Thesaurus:out of order

   The lift is always out of order.

   • 2017, David Walliams , Bad Dad, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN:

     With the lift in the block still out of order, they climbed the flights and flights of steps. When Dad finally put the key in the front door, both were weary beyond words.

3. (idiomatic) Inappropriate or unsuitable.

   Synonym: out of line

   I suppose my remarks about his wife were out of order.

4. Not in order: not according with e.g. the procedural rules governing formal meetings of a deliberative body.
5. untidy
   • 1603, Michel de Montaigne, translated by John Florio, The Essayes , London: Val Simmes for Edward Blount , →OCLC:
     , II.31:

     Architas Tarentinus returning from a war, where he had beene Captaine generall, found his house all out of order, husbandrie all spoiled, and by the ill government of his Bailife, his ground all waste and unmanured .

• in order