ordain
Americanverb (used with object)
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to invest with ministerial, priestly, or rabbinical functions.
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to enact or establish by law, edict, etc..
to ordain a new type of government.
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to decree; give orders for.
He ordained that the restrictions were to be lifted.
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(of God, fate, etc.) to destine or predestine.
Fate had ordained the meeting.
- Synonyms:
- predetermine
verb (used without object)
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to order or command.
Thus do the gods ordain.
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to select for or appoint to an office.
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to invest someone with sacerdotal functions.
verb
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to consecrate (someone) as a priest; confer holy orders upon
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(may take a clause as object) to decree, appoint, or predestine irrevocably
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(may take a clause as object) to order, establish, or enact with authority
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obsolete to select for an office
Other Word Forms
- ordainable adjective
- ordainer noun
- ordainment noun
- reordain verb (used with object)
- self-ordainer noun
- superordain verb (used without object)
- unordainable adjective
Etymology
Origin of ordain
First recorded in 1250–1300; Middle English ordeinen, from Old French ordener, from Latin ordināre “to order, arrange, appoint”; ordination
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.
His children were working, getting married and established in their own homes, and he’d been ordained as a pastor in 1999 and was deeply involved in his church.
From Los Angeles Times
Both ordained ministers, they talked about their faith and efforts at bipartisanship.
From Los Angeles Times
Bishop Emily Onyango - the first woman ordained as a bishop in the Anglican Church of Kenya - called the news that Dame Sarah had been named Archbishop designate "a new dawn".
From BBC
Ramkalawan, an ordained Anglican priest who signed the deal with Qatar last year, is unrepentant.
From BBC
By 1991, the Diocese of Sheffield had fast-tracked Brain's route to the priesthood, allowing him to become ordained after just two years, instead of the usual four.
From BBC
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.
