working order

English

Noun

working order (uncountable)

1. (especially of machinery) The state or condition of being operational or of functioning acceptably.
   • 1872 Mark Twain, Roughing It, ch. 45,

     The Commission got itself into systematic working order, and for weeks the contributions flowed into its treasury.

   • 1908, H. G. Wells, The War in the Air, ch. 10,

     The engine was in working order.

   • 2003, Unmesh Kher, "3 Flawed Assumptions About Postwar Iraq," Time, 22 Sep.,

     The Pentagon's plans assumed that Iraq's industrial base and utilities were in working order.