ordain
[awr-deyn]
- to invest with ministerial or sacerdotal functions; confer holy orders upon.
- to enact or establish by law, edict, etc.: to ordain a new type of government.
- to decree; give orders for: He ordained that the restrictions were to be lifted.
- (of God, fate, etc.) to destine or predestine: Fate had ordained the meeting.
- to order or command: Thus do the gods ordain.
- to select for or appoint to an office.
- to invest someone with sacerdotal functions.
Origin of ordain
1250–1300; Middle English ordeinen < Old French ordener < Latin ordināre to order, arrange, appoint. See ordination
Synonyms
See more synonyms on Thesaurus.com3. order, prescribe, determine. 4. predetermine.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for ordain
Contemporary Examples
And no religious denomination should be forced to ordain gays or women as priests, right?
The letter also ordered her to “take down www.ordainwomen.org and disassociat[e] yourself from Ordain Women.”
Kate Kelly, the leader of Ordain Women, was officially excommunicated.
The Ordain Women website posted some of Harrison's email to Kelly informing her of her excommunication.
Among other things, Weiss had the beautiful chutzpah to ordain Orthodox women.
Historical Examples
And tell me,” added Alcibiades, “do they ordain to do what is good, or what is ill?
She no longer had any question for that which he chose to ordain.
The Golden WomanRidgwell Cullum
You are their judges—pronounce, then, their fate; do you ordain them to live?
My heart submitted to whatever it should please God to ordain.
The Autobiography of Madame GuyonJeanne Marie Bouvier de La Motte Guyon
They were forbidden to ordain their own priests or practise their own peculiar customs.
History of the Moravian ChurchJ. E. Hutton
ordain
- to consecrate (someone) as a priest; confer holy orders upon
- (may take a clause as object) to decree, appoint, or predestine irrevocably
- (may take a clause as object) to order, establish, or enact with authority
- obsolete to select for an office
Word Origin
C13: from Anglo-Norman ordeiner, from Late Latin ordināre, from Latin ordo order
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for ordain
v.
late 13c., "to appoint or admit to the ministry of the Church," from stem of Old French ordener "place in order, arrange, prepare; consecrate, designate" (Modern French ordonner) and directly from Latin ordinare "put in order, arrange, dispose, appoint," from ordo (genitive ordinis) "order" (see order (n.)). The notion is "to confer holy orders upon." Meaning "to decree, enact" is from c.1300; sense of "to set (something) that will continue in a certain order" is from early 14c. Related: Ordained; ordaining.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper