Definition of "ordain" []

• To invest with ministerial or priestly authority; confer holy orders on. (verb-transitive)
• To authorize as a rabbi. (verb-transitive)
• To order by virtue of superior authority; decree or enact. (verb-transitive)
• To prearrange unalterably; predestine: by fate ordained. See Synonyms at dictate. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "In reference to the word ordain, we shall speak under the sixth proposition."
• "The word "ordain" -- then and now -- means "to order by virtue of superior authority," meaning "We the people" are the superior authority."
• "To deny that the elders have the right to ordain is to run directly against the expressed declaration of the Bible."