ordain
verbUS /ɔɹˈdeɪn/ · UK /ɔːˈdeɪn/
Etymology From Middle English ordeynen, from Old French ordiner, from Latin ordinare (“to order”), from ordo (“order”). Doublet of ordinate.
1
To prearrange unalterably.
- What if the Foot, ordain'd the duſt to tread, / Or Hand, to toil, aſpir'd to be the Head? / What if the Head, the Eye, or Ear repin'd / To ſerve mere Engines to the ruling Mind?1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: […] J[ohn] Wilford, […], →OCLC, page 15, lines 248–251:
2
To decree.
- On once more we swung, bumping uneasily along in the antique narrow-gauge coach, with gloomy woods and gathering night outside, shouts and songs (and quacks) inside—this was not at all the sort of train ordained by the logical strategists in Paris—then grinding to a stop at a mysterious halt which was no more than a nameboard in the pinewoods, without even a footpath leading to it, but nevertheless with a solitary passenger stolidly waiting.1961 November, H. G. Ellison, P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 668:
3
Lifestyle, Religion To admit into the ministry, for example as a priest, bishop, minister or Buddhist monk, or to authorize as a rabbi.
4
To predestine.
- Synonyms
- foresay
- Derived terms
- coordain, disordain, foreordain, misordain, ordainable, ordainee, ordainer, ordainment, preordain, reordain, unordain
- Related terms
- ordination