or else

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else

(ĕls)

adj.

1. Other; different: Ask somebody else.

2. Additional; more: Would you like anything else?

adv.

In a different or additional time, place, or manner: I always do it this way and I don't know how else it could be done. Where else do you want to go besides Miami?

Idiom:

or else

1. Used to indicate an alternative: We need to eat the leftovers or else buy more food.

2. Used to indicate negative consequences that will result if an action is not followed: We need to pay the bill, or else the electricity will be shut off.

3. Used after a command or demand to make a threat: Be there on time, or else!

[Middle English elles, from Old English; see al- in Indo-European roots.]

Usage Note: Else is often used redundantly in combination with prepositions such as but, except, and besides. The sentence No one else but Sam saw the accident would thus be better without else. · When a pronoun is followed by else, the possessive form is generally written with the 's following else: That must be someone else's (not someone's else) book. Both who else's and whose else are in use, but not whose else's: Who else's book could it have been? Whose else could it have been? · Sometimes the or is dropped from or else so that else functions as a conjunction, as in George Eliot's "My brother is poor, and I want to look as much like him as I can, else he may feel distant from me." This usage is rare in Standard American English, however, and sounds informal or dialectal. See Usage Note at who.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

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Adv.

or else - in place of, or as an alternative to; "Felix became a herpetologist instead"; "alternatively we could buy a used car"

alternatively, instead

Translations

وإلا

eller ogsåellersi modsat fald

sonst

ειδάλλως

sinon

vagy különbenvagy pedig

annars; aî öîrum kosti; eîa òá aî

in caso contrario oppure se no

ellers

ya da yoksa

否则

else

(els) adjective, adverb

besides; other than that already mentioned. What else can I do? Can we go anywhere else?; He took someone else's pencil.

ˌelseˈwhere adverb

in, or to, another place; somewhere or anywhere else. You must look elsewhere if you want a less tiring job.

or else

otherwise. He must have missed the train – or else he's ill.

References in classic literature ?

failed to obtain her recognition, also on temperamental grounds - either because they bored her, or else because they stood in the way of her scorns and sympathies.

View in context

That was somebody else's whoop, or else I was turned around.

View in context

You MUST have meant some mischief, or else you'd have signed your name like an honest man.'