working order

working order (uncountable)

1. (especially of machinery) The state or condition of being operational or of functioning acceptably.
   • 1870–1871 (date written), Mark Twain [pseudonym; Samuel Langhorne Clemens], chapter XLV, in Roughing It, Hartford, Conn.: American Publishing Company , published 1872, →OCLC, page 315:

     he Commission got itself into systematic working order, and for weeks the contributions flowed into its treasury in a generous stream.

   • 1908, H. G. Wells, chapter 10, in The War in the Air:

     The engine was in working order.

   • 1944 January and February, “Light Railways in Derbyshire”, in Railway Magazine, page 25:

     The locomotive stock consists of three of the six original American-built 4-6-0 tanks, named Bridget, Peggy, and Hummy, all in clean condition and good working order; [...].

   • 1961 January, “The latest in Continental electric multiple-units and their operation”, in Trains Illustrated, page 47:

     Each coach on the Swedish Yoa2 is 57ft long and 10ft 4in wide; with its two traction motors the unit weighs 79 tons in working order and has a maximum speed of under 60 m.p.h.

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 98:

     Upstream from the house is a watermill, cased in gleaming white weather-boarding, which has been restored to working order. Near by is the water-driven turbine which Kipling had installed in 1902 to light his mansion with electricity.

   • 2003 September 22, Unmesh Kher, “3 Flawed Assumptions About Postwar Iraq”, in Time:

     The Pentagon's plans assumed that Iraq's industrial base and utilities were in working order.

• Thesaurus:out of order

• “working order”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.