Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ordain

Or·dain′ (ôr·dān′), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Ordained; p. pr. & vb. n. Ordaining.] [OE. ordeinen, OF. ordener, F. ordonner, fr. L. ordinare, from ordo, ordinis, order. See Order, and cf. Ordinance.] 1. To set in order; to arrange according to rule; to regulate; to set; to establish. "Battle well ordained." Spenser.

The stake that shall be ordained on either side. Chaucer.

2. 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. 1 Kings xii. 32.

And doth the power that man adores ordain Their doom ? Byron.

3. To set apart for an office; to appoint.

Being ordained his special governor. Shak.

4. (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. Bp. Stillingfleet.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.