How to Use or else in a Sentence

or else

idiom

• And teenagers have to find something or else they get lost.
  — Alex Ross, Peoplemag, 3 May 2023
• Trump told the Chinese to keep their hands off of Taiwan — or else.
  — CNBC, 17 July 2024
• She was called a French doll, or else a boudoir doll, or else a fashion doll.
  — Cynthia Ozick, The New Yorker, 24 July 2023
• This has got to be like the three-year policy or else this is crazy.
  — Khristopher J. Brooks, CBS News, 12 June 2024
• The trick is to give them something to climb, or else their vines will languish in a mildewy mess on the ground.
  — Alex Testere, Saveur, 24 July 2024
• 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
• Just take careful steps and maintain a sense of direction … or else you may get lost along the way.
  — Tarot.com, New York Daily News, 8 Mar. 2024
• Be self-aware — or else others might need to wake you up from your obsession.
  — Tarot.com, Baltimore Sun, 25 Jan. 2024
• Opponents had better get their bearings and up to speed in 2024, or else.
  — Edgar Thompson, Orlando Sentinel, 2 Aug. 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
• All the vouchers had to be used by a certain date, or else the federal government would take them back.
  — Lucy Tompkins, USA TODAY, 13 Aug. 2024
• 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 body gave the facility 60 days to rectify any issues or else it could be ordered to close its doors.
  — Louis Casiano, Fox News, 14 May 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
• Every player on the floor must be able to do it all — dribble, pass, shoot, defend — or else they, and as a result, their team, will get exposed.
  — Kristian Winfield, New York Daily News, 9 Aug. 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
• Add crushed ice two-thirds or so full and agitate (either swizzle back and forth with a swizzle stick or a bar spoon, or else just stir) until the glass begins to frost.
  — Jason O'Bryan, Robb Report, 11 July 2024
• 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
• In Harvard Yard that June, graduates protested the war by refusing to don cap and gown, or else by wearing white armbands over their robes.
  — Jason Farago, New York Times, 23 May 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

Last Updated: 30 Sep 2024