order of the day

the order of the day

Something that is a priority in a certain situation or at a given time. If you're taking the kids to the beach, then sunscreen is the order of the day. While you're in college, studying is the order of the day, not socializing!
See also: of, order
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.

order of the day

something necessary or usual at a certain time. Warm clothes are the order of the day when camping in the winter. Going to bed early was the order of the day when we were young.
See also: of, order
McGraw-Hill Dictionary of American Idioms and Phrasal Verbs.

order of the day, the

The agenda; the most important activity or issue. This term originated in the seventeenth century and was used both in the military, for specific commands given to the troops for the day, and in legislative bodies for the day’s agenda. By the late eighteenth century it was being used figuratively, as by George Washington, quoted as saying (1795), “Peace has been (to borrow a modern phrase) the order of the day.” The poet Howard Fish put it very cynically (The Wrongs of Man, 1819): “The good but pine; the order of the day is—prey on others, or become a prey.”
See also: of, order
The Dictionary of Clichés by Christine Ammer
See also:
  • order of the day, the
  • the order of the day
  • coat (someone or something) with (something)
  • coat with
  • put (something) on the front burner
  • come first
  • glare down on
  • glare down on (someone or something)
  • if nothing else
  • put (something) on the back burner
References in periodicals archive
The situation is so terrible that suicide has now become the order of the day, as suicide rate keeps increasing at alarming rate daily,' she said.
Addressing an NCSL conference in Birmingham, he will say: "The order of the day for all of us will no doubt be efficiency savings, focus and impact.
It has become the victim of Taylorisation, Fordism, managerialism, and globalisation, and it has been reduced to routinized, technocratic and bureaucratic tasks where evidence and competency-based practice and risk assessments are the order of the day irrespective of whether or not they improve the lot of clients.
It's the standing order of the day for the 87 employees at Three-H Furniture Systems, which specializes in commercial office furniture built to client specifications.
Here, partnership was the order of the day generated by the sense that if private developers worked with the metropolitan authority, then benefits would flow to all stakeholders, especially the rising middle classes drawn to Montreal by expanding financial and educational institutions.
He feels invisible but lucky because he is here and not in Algiers where terror is the order of the day.
Thus there is a natural association of ideas between the secret military documents and the Islamic world, at a time when political will, the power of the media, and distrust among cultures are the order of the day. This, then, is Perino & Vele's intention: to push us, with only a few elements, to think about one of the most powerful concerns of our time.
Welcome to the lean world where change is the order of the day and 20- or 30-year-old paradigms must be thrown out.
"Raunch was often the order of the day, [including] jokes that centered on the possibility that any one of us might be gay."
THE prince of ales will be the order of the day at five city pubs.
Michael Henry Adams states, "as Harlem grew and real-estate speculation became the order of the day, the dollar value of land became paramount in developers' eyes long before any actual profits had been realized.
Perhaps, rather than spending our time on a sermon, we should heed the words of 1 Timothy 2:1: "First of all, then, I urge that supplications, prayers, intercessions, and thanksgivings be made for everyone." Carefully crafted prayers might be the order of the day. Rather than speaking for God to the people, speak to the people for God.
In a period when isolation and concerted attempts at conversion were the order of the day, the very existence of this office seems anomalous; but Jewish notaries existed, kept records in Hebrew, and served as the backbone of Jewish self-rule.
SILLY socks and outrageous ties were the order of the day for students at Warwickshire College's Moreton Morrell site, taking part in a year-long fundraising campaign for animal charities.
a community of friends...not as a social surface relation but as an existential in-depth-relation between two individuals...realizable only within the framework of the covenantal community where in depth personalities relate themselves to each other ontologically and total commitment to God and fellow man is the order of the day.