Word Direct Answers

What does "certain" mean?

Certain: Determined; resolved; -- used with an infinitive. However, I with thee have fixed my lot, Certain to undergo like doom. Milton.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Not to be doubted or denied; established as a fact. The dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure. Dan. ii.
  2. 3.4. Actually existing; sure to happen; inevitable. Virtue that directs our ways Through certain dangers to uncertain praise. Dryden. Death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all. Shak.
  3. 4.Unfailing; infallible. I have often wished that I knew as certain a remedy for any other distemper. Mead.
  4. 5.Fixed or stated; regular; determinate. The people go out and gather a certain rate every day. Ex. xvi.
  5. 6.7. Not specifically named; indeterminate; indefinite; one or some; -- sometimes used independenty as a noun, and meaning certain persons. It came to pass when he was in a certain city. Luke. v.
  6. 7.About everything he wrote there was a certain natural grace und decorum. Macaulay. For certain, assuredly. -- Of a certain, certainly.
  7. 8.Certainty. [Obs.] Gower.
  8. 9.A certain number or quantity. [Obs.] Chaucer.
  9. 10.Certainly. [Obs.] Milton.

Sources