How to Use or else in a Sentence

or else

idiom
Definition of or elsenext
  • And teenagers have to find something or else they get lost.
    — Alex Ross, Peoplemag, 3 May 2023
  • She was called a French doll, or else a boudoir doll, or else a fashion doll.
    — Cynthia Ozick, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023
  • But a clown who makes no one laugh is not a clown, or else is stuck in a Beckett play.
    — Adam Gopnik, The New Yorker, 11 Dec. 2023
  • Don't hide your main point in the fourth paragraph or else nobody will read it.
    — Expert Panel®, Forbes, 12 Feb. 2024
  • All of the stories take place within cities, or else on the road between cities.
    — Dennis Zhou, The New Yorker, 2 Oct. 2023
  • But children’s fate, through the passage of years is to become grown-up or else dead.
    — Daniel Foster, National Review, 30 Nov. 2023
  • Congress must pass a funding bill by the end of this week, or else the government will shut down.
    — The Editors, National Review, 14 Nov. 2023
  • Be self-aware — or else others might need to wake you up from your obsession.
    — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 25 Jan. 2024
  • To enjoy the maximum amount of fun, just do your best to keep track of all your events, or else some appointments could slip through the cracks.
    — Tarot Astrologers, Chicago Tribune, 10 Sep. 2023
  • Gang leaders have to pay their soldiers or else risk being overthrown.
    — Shannon K. Crawford, ABC News, 1 Aug. 2023
  • Subtly strewed aluminum casts of leaves, roots and even anchovies lie on the floor, or else on tatami mats sheathed in sheets of pale silicone.
    — Martha Schwendener, New York Times, 13 Mar. 2024
  • The panel had to be unanimous or else the shooter would have received life in prison without parole.
    — Julianne McShane, NBC News, 3 Aug. 2023
  • His novels often make fun of genres, or else invent them.
    — Maya Binyam, The New Yorker, 11 Mar. 2024
  • Essentially: Spirit has to do more with less — or else.
    — Melvin Backman, Quartz, 29 Mar. 2024
  • The cinematographer, Erik Messerschmidt, likes to mount a camera down low, next to the left wheel arch of a race car, or else behind the cockpit, staring ahead.
    — Anthony Lane, The New Yorker, 22 Dec. 2023
  • There are two backup launch dates available December 25 and 26, or else the launch will have to wait until January.
    — Stephen Clark, Ars Technica, 24 Oct. 2023
  • Many of the deceased were plagued by the same hallucinatory countdowns: a deadline by which to halt their research, or else.
    — Inkoo Kang, The New Yorker, 18 Mar. 2024
  • Advertisement One of the men hopped out of the car and told the girls to get in or else another man in the car would force them into the vehicle, said an FBI agent in an affidavit filed in the case.
    — Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 8 May 2024
  • Password Capture and Replay Using a password manager has to be easy, or else consumers will go back to pet names and sticky notes.
    — PCMAG, 21 Mar. 2024
  • The meal at the bottom must be scrumptious, Royer notes, or else the energy expenditure involved wouldn’t be worth it.
    — Bykate Hull, science.org, 11 May 2023
  • Bank of America has joined the growing list of banks putting their foot down and forcing workers to comply with its return-to-office mandates—or else.
    — Orianna Rosa Royle, Fortune, 25 Jan. 2024
  • The ban requires local artists to rewrite their music to comply with the restrictions by June 1st, or else they won’t be allowed to perform publicly.
    — Jess Weatherbed, The Verge, 11 Apr. 2024
  • However, for this to work well, the plants under the net will need to be whitefly-free first (or else this would trap them there and exclude any beneficial insects trying to eat them).
    — Miri Talabac, Baltimore Sun, 27 July 2023
  • Lawmakers had been ordered by Wisconsin’s highest court to draw new maps by the 2024 election or else the court would adopt its own remedial maps.
    — Brian Bushard, Forbes, 13 Feb. 2024
  • Sight becomes a handicap in Bird Box, a post-apocalyptic thriller where the enemy must go unseen, or else.
    — EW.com, 18 Jan. 2024
  • Sight becomes a barrier in Bird Box, a postapocalyptic thriller where the enemy must go unseen, or else.
    — Randall Colburn, EW.com, 25 Jan. 2024
  • What is different now is a new European Union law that could force the world’s social media platforms to do more to fight it — or else face fines of up to 6 percent of a company’s revenue.
    — Steven Lee Myers, New York Times, 27 Sep. 2023
  • Italy needs to decide whether to stay in the Chinese infrastructure investment scheme by December, or else the agreement will expire by March 2024.
    — Nicholas Gordon, Fortune, 31 July 2023
  • Things nonetheless seem to be going well until Ryder disappears, and Gail tasks Colt with finding the movie star, or else Jody's film will never be finished.
    — Jennifer Ouellette, Ars Technica, 2 Nov. 2023
  • Back home, regarding pro-Palestinian protests taking place, most would prefer Biden take no position on these in the U.S., or else condemn them —more than support them.
    — Anthony Salvanto, CBS News, 10 Dec. 2023

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'or else.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

Last Updated: