ordain

English

From Middle English ordeynen, from Old French ordiner, from Latin ordinare (“to order”), from ordo (“order”). Doublet of ordinate.

ordain (third-person singular simple present ordains, present participle ordaining, simple past and past participle ordained)

To prearrange unalterably.
- 1733, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Man. […], epistle I, London: Printed for J[ohn] Wilford, […], OCLC 960856019, lines 248–251, page 15:
  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?
To decree.
- 1961 November, H. G. Ellison and P. G. Barlow, “Journey through France: Part One”, in Trains Illustrated, page 668:
  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.
(religion) To admit into the ministry, for example as a priest, bishop, minister or Buddhist monk, or to authorize as a rabbi.
To predestine.

Conjugation of ordain

With prefixes

to prearrange unalterably

admit into the ministry of a religion

Bulgarian: ръкополагам (bg) (rǎkopolagam)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 按立 (zh) (ànlì)
Danish: ordinere
German: weihen (de)
Maori: whakawahi, whakapiriti, whakaminita
Norwegian:
Bokmål: ordinere
Nynorsk: ordinere
Russian: рукополагать (ru) impf (rukopolagatʹ), рукоположить (ru) pf (rukopoložitʹ)
Spanish: ordenar (es)
Swedish: prästviga (sv) (of priests only), ordinera (sv) (of priests and bishops only), viga till (followed by the office in question)
Ukrainian: висвя́чувати impf (vysvjáčuvaty), ви́святити pf (výsvjatyty)