or else
Idioms-
Otherwise, in different circumstances, as in Present your case now, or else you won't have a chance . [c. 1300]
-
Regardless of any extenuating circumstances, no matter what, as in Be there on time or else! [Second half of 1800s]
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
“We have to protect it or else we lose the art form.”
From Los Angeles Times
One win must become two or else the significance of what happened at Murrayfield goes away like so many of the other victories over England.
From BBC
Still more people have been surveilled and captured in DHS databases, with federal agents in some cases holding cellphones inches from their faces to scan their features, or else taking pictures of their license plates.
From Salon
Chase began to think they were walking backward instead of forward, or else that the GPS was wrong.
From Literature
“I had to create this character or else I was going to become him.”
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
