Meaning & use
marching order
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Meanings
phraseplural
Official instructions telling someone to leave a place or a job.
Grammar: Used in the plural: give someone their marching orders. It takes a possessive pronoun before it.
Patterns
- give someone their marching orders
- get your marching orders
- receive your marching orders
After the financial scandal, the board gave the manager his marching orders.
She knew she would get her marching orders if she missed another deadline.
The team received their marching orders after losing five games in a row.
phrasepluralmilitary
A soldier's official orders to move or march to a place.
Grammar: Used in military contexts, usually with a verb like give, receive, or await.
Patterns
- give marching orders
- receive marching orders
- await marching orders
The commander gave the troops their marching orders at dawn.
The soldiers waited for their marching orders before leaving the camp.
New marching orders arrived from headquarters late that night.
Common combinations
- give someone their marching orders
- The coach gave the player his marching orders after the argument.
- get your marching orders
- He got his marching orders from the director on Friday.
- receive marching orders
- The unit received marching orders to move north.
- await marching orders
- The staff are awaiting their marching orders from the new CEO.
Synonyms and how they differ
Word family
- march verb
- To walk with regular steps, especially as a soldier.
Commonly confused: marching order or walking papers?
marching order vs walking papers
A similar idiom meaning a notice of dismissal; 'marching orders' is more common in British English and can also be used for military orders.
Practice
After the team lost the final match, the manager was given his ______.
Choose one answer.
The fixed idiom is 'marching orders' in the plural. 'Marching order' (singular) is not used in this meaning, and 'march orders' is not the standard phrase.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “marching order”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.