OK (redirected from okaying)

OK ¹ or o·kay  (-k) Informal

n. pl. OK's or o·kays

Approval; agreement: Get your supervisor's OK before taking a day off.

adj.

1. Agreeable; acceptable: Was everything OK with your stay?

2. Satisfactory; good: an OK fellow.

3. Not excellent and not poor; mediocre: made an OK presentation.

4. In proper or satisfactory operational or working order: Is the battery OK?

5. Correct: That answer is OK.

6. Uninjured; safe: The skier fell but was OK.

7. Fairly healthy; well: Thanks to the medicine, the patient was OK.

adv.

Fine; well enough; adequately: a television that works OK despite its age.

interj.

Used to express approval or agreement.

tr.v. OK'ed or OK'd or o·kayed, OK'·ing or o·kay·ing, OK's or o·kays

To approve of or agree to; authorize.

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[Abbreviation of oll korrect, slang respelling of all correct.]

Word History: OK is a quintessentially American term that has spread from English to many other languages. Its origin was the subject of scholarly debate for many years until Allen Walker Read showed that OK is based on a joke of sorts. OK is first recorded in 1839 but was probably in circulation before that date. During the 1830s there was a humoristic fashion in Boston newspapers to reduce a phrase to initials and supply an explanation in parentheses. Sometimes the abbreviations were misspelled to add to the humor. OK was used in March 1839 as an abbreviation for all correct, the joke being that neither the O nor the K was correct. Originally spelled with periods, this term outlived most similar abbreviations owing to its use in President Martin Van Buren's 1840 campaign for reelection. Because he was born in Kinderhook, New York, Van Buren was nicknamed Old Kinderhook, and the abbreviation proved eminently suitable for political slogans. That same year, an editorial referring to the receipt of a pin with the slogan O.K. had this comment: "frightful letters ... significant of the birth-place of Martin Van Buren, old Kinderhook, as also the rallying word of the Democracy of the late election, 'all correct' .... Those who wear them should bear in mind that it will require their most strenuous exertions ... to make all things O.K."

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OK ²

abbr.

Oklahoma

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OK Oklahoma

Thesaurus

Noun	1.	OK - a state in south central United States Oklahoma, Sooner State Platt National Park - a national park in Oklahoma having mineral springs U.S.A., United States, United States of America, US, USA, America, the States, U.S. - North American republic containing 50 states - 48 conterminous states in North America plus Alaska in northwest North America and the Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean; achieved independence in 1776 Bartlesville - a town in northeastern Oklahoma Enid - a town in north central Oklahoma Lawton - a town in southwest Oklahoma McAlester - a town in southeastern Oklahoma Muskogee - a town in eastern Oklahoma on the Arkansas River capital of Oklahoma, Oklahoma City - capital and largest city of Oklahoma; the economy is based on oil and livestock Tulsa - a major city of northeastern Oklahoma on the Arkansas river; once known as the oil capital of the world and still heavily involved in the oil and gas industries Arkansas River, Arkansas - a river that rises in the Rocky Mountains in Colorado and flows southeast through Kansas and Oklahoma and through Arkansas to become a tributary of the Mississippi River Canadian River, Canadian - a river rising in northeastern New Mexico and flowing eastward across the Texas panhandle to become a tributary of the Arkansas River in Oklahoma Cimarron, Cimarron River - a river that rises in northeastern New Mexico and flows eastward into Oklahoma where it becomes a tributary of the Arkansas River Llano Estacado - a large semiarid plateau forming the southern part of the Great Plains Neosho, Neosho River - a river that rises in eastern Kansas and flows eastward into Oklahoma to become a tributary of the Arkansas River Red River, Red - a tributary of the Mississippi River that flows eastward from Texas along the southern boundary of Oklahoma and through Louisiana
	2.	OK - an endorsement; "they gave us the O.K. to go ahead" O.K., okay, okeh, okey imprimatur, sanction, countenance, endorsement, indorsement, warrant - formal and explicit approval; "a Democrat usually gets the union's endorsement"
Adj.	1.	ok - being satisfactory or in satisfactory condition; "an all-right movie"; "the passengers were shaken up but are all right"; "is everything all right?"; "everything's fine"; "things are okay"; "dinner and the movies had been fine"; "another minute I'd have been fine" all right, fine, hunky-dory, o.k., okay colloquialism - a colloquial expression; characteristic of spoken or written communication that seeks to imitate informal speech satisfactory - giving satisfaction; "satisfactory living conditions"; "his grades were satisfactory"
Adv.	1.	OK - an expression of agreement normally occurring at the beginning of a sentence all right, fine, very well, alright