doom
Americannoun
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fate or destiny, especially adverse fate; unavoidable ill fortune.
In exile and poverty, he met his doom.
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to fall to one's doom.
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a judgment, decision, or sentence, especially an unfavorable one.
The judge pronounced the defendant's doom.
- Synonyms:
- fate, ruination, downfall, destruction
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the Last Judgment, at the end of the world.
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Obsolete. a statute, enactment, or legal judgment.
verb (used with object)
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to destine, especially to an adverse fate.
- Synonyms:
- predestine, foreordain
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to pronounce judgment against; condemn.
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to ordain or fix as a sentence or fate.
noun
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death or a terrible fate
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a judgment or decision
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(sometimes capital) another term for the Last Judgment
verb
Related Words
See fate.
Other Word Forms
- doomy adjective
- predoom verb (used with object)
Etymology
Origin of doom
First recorded before 900; Middle English dome, dōm, Old English dōm “judgment, law”; cognate with Old Norse dōmr, “judgment, sentence, court,” Gothic dōms “sentence, fame,” all from Germanic dômaz “what has been set,” from dôn “to set, place, do 1 ( def. ) ”; compare Greek thémis “law” (i.e., “what has been set, laid down”); deem
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Citrini’s essay ends with a line that deserves more attention than the doom that preceded it: “The canary is still alive.”
From MarketWatch
The Next Warren Buffett Curse,” or the superstition that those anointed with the title are doomed to fall short, might not be real.
For now, though, the weakness in bank stocks looks more like a temporary dislocation for some of the big banks and not a harbinger of economic doom and gloom.
From Barron's
It asserted that widespread famines and mass starvation would doom huge swaths of mankind because the world’s population was growing too rapidly.
The entire Forest would be doomed: doomed because he hadn’t watched his step ...
From Literature
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
