Word Direct Answers

What does "doom" mean?

Doom: That to which one is doomed or sentenced; destiny or fate, esp. unhappy destiny; penalty. Ere Hector meets his doom. Pope. And homely household task shall be her doom. Dryden.

Additional senses

  1. 2.Ruin; death. This is the day of doom for Bassianus. Shak.
  2. 3.Discriminating opinion or judgment; discrimination; discernment; decision. [Obs.] And there he learned of things and haps to come, To give foreknowledge true, and certain doom. Fairfax.
  3. 4.To judge; to estimate or determine as a judge. [Obs.] Milton.
  4. 5.To pronounce sentence or judgment on; to condemn; to consign by a decree or sentence; to sentence; as, a criminal doomed to chains or death. Absolves the just, and dooms the guilty souls. Dryden.
  5. 6.To ordain as penalty; hence, to mulct or fine. Have I tongue to doom my brother's death Shak.
  6. 7.To assess a tax upon, by estimate or at discretion. [New England] J. Pickering.
  7. 8.To destine; to fix irrevocably the destiny or fate of; to appoint, as by decree or by fate. A man of genius . . . doomed to struggle with difficulties. Macaulay.

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