Library / English Dictionary

ORDAIN

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Issue an order

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "ordain" is one way to...):

decree (issue a decree)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ordain"):

predestine (decree or determine beforehand)

will (decree or ordain)

designate; destine; doom; fate (decree or designate beforehand)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Derivation:

ordinance (a statute enacted by a city government)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Appoint to a clerical posts

Example:

he was ordained in the Church

Synonyms:

consecrate; ordain; order; ordinate

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "ordain" is one way to...):

enthrone; invest; vest (provide with power and authority)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Somebody ----s somebody PP

Derivation:

ordainer (a cleric who ordains; a cleric who admits someone to holy orders)

ordinance (the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Invest with ministerial or priestly authority

Example:

The minister was ordained only last month

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "ordain" is one way to...):

enthrone; invest; vest (provide with power and authority)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

ordainer (a cleric who ordains; a cleric who admits someone to holy orders)

ordinance (the act of ordaining; the act of conferring (or receiving) holy orders)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Order by virtue of superior authority; decree

Example:

the legislature enacted this law in 1985

Synonyms:

enact; ordain

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Hypernyms (to "ordain" is one way to...):

decree (issue a decree)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "ordain"):

reenact (enact again)

legislate; pass (make laws, bills, etc. or bring into effect by legislation)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s that CLAUSE

Credits

 Context examples: 

Edward have got some business at Oxford, he says; so he must go there for a time; and after THAT, as soon as he can light upon a Bishop, he will be ordained.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I, who preached contentment with a humble lot, and justified the vocation even of hewers of wood and drawers of water in God's service—I, His ordained minister, almost rave in my restlessness.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Nature in one of her beneficent moods has ordained that even death has some antidote to its own terrors.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

There is now a spirit of improvement abroad; but among those who were ordained twenty, thirty, forty years ago, the larger number, to judge by their performance, must have thought reading was reading, and preaching was preaching.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)