ORDAIN • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Ordain

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/ɔrdˈeɪn/ Listen

verb

Ordain v. t. (past & past part. ordained; pres. part. ordaining)

To set in order; to arrange according to rule; to regulate; to set; to establish. "Battle well ordained." "The stake that shall be ordained on either side."

To regulate, or establish, by appointment, decree, or law; to constitute; to decree; to appoint; to institute. "Jeroboam ordained a feast in the eighth month." "And doth the power that man adores ordain Their doom?"

To set apart for an office; to appoint. "Being ordained his special governor."

(Eccl.) To invest with ministerial or sacerdotal functions; to introduce into the office of the Christian ministry, by the laying on of hands, or other forms; to set apart by the ceremony of ordination. "Meletius was ordained by Arian bishops."

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Etymology of 'Ordain'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Ordain" Quotes from Famous Books

... the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts comes from a quarter by no means unduly biassed in its favour. "How have thousands and tens of thousands been raised in Scotland, for the last forty years, to fit out and to maintain beyond seas whomsoever the dissenting ministers of London chose to ordain as missionaries to the heathen? God forbid, that I should ever whisper a syllable against missions to the heathen! But I have seen too many missionaries, not to have seen more than I choose to mention, whom men possessed of the least discernment ...

— Australia, its history and present condition • William Pridden

... many till their lives' end, and so they come to the third wretchedness. The third is, Exchanging a lasting good for a passing delight: as who say they give endless joy for a little joy of this life. If they will turn them and rise to penance, GOD will ordain their dwelling with angels and with holy men. But because they choose the vile sin of this world, and have more delight in the filth of their flesh than in the fairness of heaven, they lose both the world and heaven. For he that hath not JESUS Christ loses ...

— The Form of Perfect Living and Other Prose Treatises • Richard Rolle of Hampole

... brain was so much disturbed by the sight before him, that the judges, beholding his deportment, doubted whether to ordain him to be dragged before the bier or to pronounce judgment in default; and it was not until he was asked for the last time whether he would submit to the ordeal, that he answered, with ...

— The Fair Maid of Perth • Sir Walter Scott

... do hereby Ordain and Appoint our Trusty and Well-beloved Privy Councellor and Vice President of the Royal Bohemian Kingdom The Right Honourable Philip Knakowsky Count Collowrath punctually to perform the Contents hereof hereby requiring all and Every Person ...

— Notes on the Diplomatic History of the Jewish Question • Lucien Wolf

... after her stuff, nor her farm, nor nothing that's worth a penny to any man. Her will must be made again, but everything goes back to you and yours. I only ask to stop along with her till I'm called: for I'm alone in the world and shouldn't like to be thrust out. And if Mary goes first, then I ordain that you let me bide to my dying day in comfort out of respect to her memory. And that's all I ask ...

— The Torch and Other Tales • Eden Phillpotts

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