orient

Etymology

From Middle English orient, borrowed from Old French orient, from Latin oriens (“rising; as a noun, the quarter where the sun rises, the east, day”), present participle of oriri (“to rise”).

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈɔɹ.iː.ɛnt/

Verb

orient (third-person singular simple present orients, present participle orienting, simple past and past participle oriented)

1. (transitive) To familiarize with a situation or circumstance.

   Give him time to orient himself within the new hierarchy.

2. (transitive, figuratively) To set the focus of so as to relate or appeal to a certain group.

   We will orient our campaign to the youth who are often disinterested.

3. (transitive) To point at or direct towards.

   I will orient all of the signs to face the road.

4. (transitive) To determine which direction one is facing.

   Let me just orient myself and we can be on our way.

5. (transitive) To place or build so as to face eastward.
6. (intransitive) To change direction so as to face east.
7. (by extension) To change direction to face a certain way.
8. (transitive) To place (a map or chart) so that its east side, north side, etc., lie toward the corresponding parts of the horizon; (surveying) specifically, to rotate (a map attached to a plane table) until the line of direction between any two of its points is parallel to the corresponding direction in nature.

Noun

orient (plural orients)

1. Alternative letter-case form of Orient [from 14th c.]
2. The part of the horizon where the sun first appears in the morning; the east.
   • 1609, William Shakespeare, Sonnet 7:

     Lo, in the orient when the gracious light

     Lifts up his burning head ...

   • Tennyson

     [Morn] came furrowing all the orient into gold.

3. (obsolete) A pearl of orient. [19th c.]
   • 1890, Oscar Wilde, The Picture of Dorian Gray, Vintage 2007, page 120:

     Henry II wore jewelled gloves reaching to the elbow, and had a hawk-glove sewn with twelve rubies and fifty-two great orients.

   • Thomas Carlyle, from letter quoted in Thomas Carlyle; a History of the First Forty Years of His Life by James Anthony Froude

     The chambers of the East are opened in every land, and the sun comes forth to sow the earth with orient pearl.

Adjective

orient (not comparable)

1. (obsolete, poetic) Rising, like the sun.
   • Milton

     Moon, that now meet'st the orient sun

2. eastern; oriental
   • Hakluyt

     the orient part

3. Bright; lustrous; superior; pure; perfect; pellucid; used of gems and also figuratively, because the most perfect jewels are found in the East.
   • Jeremy Taylor

     pearls round and orient

   • Wordsworth

     orient gems

   • Milton

     orient liquor in a crystal glass

Anagrams

• Ireton, iteron, norite, retino-, tonier, trione

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin oriens, orientem.

Noun

orient m (plural orients)

1. Orient
2. east

Noun

orient m (nominative singular orienz or orientz)

1. Alternative form of oriant

Etymology

Borrowed from French orient, Latin oriens, orientem.

Noun

orient n (uncountable)

1. east, Orient