Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Ordain

Ordain , transitive verb

[Old English ordeinen, Old French ordener, French ordonner, from Latin ordinare, from ordo, ordinis, order. See Order, and compare 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. — Shakespeare
4.
(Ecclesiastical) 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