The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ere \Ere\ ([=a]r or [^a]r; 277), prep. & adv. [AS. [=ae]r, prep., adv., & conj.; akin to OS., OFries., & OHG. [=e]r, G. eher, D. eer, Icel. [=a]r, Goth. air. [root]204. Cf. Early, Erst, Or, adv.]
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Before; sooner than. [Archaic or Poetic]
Myself was stirring ere the break of day.
--Shak.Ere sails were spread new oceans to explore.
--Dryden.Sir, come down ere my child die.
--John iv. 49. -
Rather than.
I will be thrown into Etna, . . . ere I will leave her.
--Shak.Ere long, before, shortly.
--Shak.Ere now, formerly, heretofore.
--Shak.Ere that, & Or are. Same as Ere.
--Shak.
Usage examples of "or are".
Do you think that such decisions are truly free, or are Tolkien's characters being manipulated without their knowledge?
Are they his passions which, under a thousand forms, torment individuals and nations, or are they the passions of man?
Every writer making a secondary world, he declared, wishes in some measure to be a real maker, or hopes that he is drawing on reality: hopes that the peculiar quality of this secondary world (if not all the details) are derived from Reality, or are flowing into it.
Are you going to waste them coming after me, or are you going to save your own neck?
Stan hates it, because whenever Mel and Julia Roberts kiss, or are about to, Dauntra and I find ourselves incapable of doing anything but stare at the screen.