predestine
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
-
to foreordain; determine beforehand
-
theol (of God) to decree from eternity (any event, esp the final salvation of individuals)
Other Word Forms
- predestinable adjective
Etymology
Origin of predestine
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English predestinen, from Latin praedestināre; see pre-, destine
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.
Genes do not predestine one individual to complete fewer years of schooling than another or one individual to score higher on a cognitive performance test than another.
From Scientific American • May 26, 2022
Therefore now He is able not to predestine him.
From Summa Theologica, Part I (Prima Pars) From the Complete American Edition by Thomas, Aquinas, Saint
For he who knowingly makes a thing and places it in circumstances the operation of which on that thing he is perfectly acquainted with, does predestine that thing to whatever fate may befall it.
From Essays Upon Some Controverted Questions by Huxley, Thomas H.
The face is somewhat like that young prisoner's; the same mystical, prescient melancholy in the wide eyes, as if she realized she was predestine to work woe.
From At the Mercy of Tiberius by Evans, Augusta J. (Augusta Jane)
V. predestine, preordain, predetermine, premeditate, resolve, concert; resolve beforehand, predesignate.
From Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases by Roget, Peter Mark
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.
