sentence

sentence vb Sentence, condemn, damn, doom, proscribe can all mean to decree the fate or punishment of a person or sometimes a thing that has been adjudged guilty, unworthy, or unfit.

Sentence is used in reference to the determination and pronouncement of punishment or penalty following an act of judging and an adverse verdict

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was tried on the charge of inciting to riot and sentenced to thirty days in jail— E. S. Bates

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he tries and sentences them on their merits, in the swift summary way of boys, as good, bad, interesting, silly— Emerson

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Condemn (see also CRITICIZE) implies both an adverse judgment and a sentence which carries with it a penalty (as forfeiture of one's freedom, one's rights, or one's life)

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Napoleon was condemned to exile

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cells for condemned prisoners

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was not inexorably condemned, as so many had feared at first, to be a vassal state in Hitler's unspeakable New Order— Shirer

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or, in the case of a thing, a forfeiture of its existence or of some status which has legally protected it from invasion; thus, to condemn an old building is legally to decree its destruction; to condemn a piece of property is to take it over for the uses of the state, on payment of its appraised value.

Damn, akin to condemn, is not employed in modern law. In theological use it implies the condemnation of the soul to hell or to eternal punishment

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he that believeth and is baptized shall be saved; but he that believeth not shall be damned— Mk 16:16

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In general use, when it carries this implication, it is often employed in curses, imprecations, or expressions of strong disapproval

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I give thee sixpence! I will see thee damned first— Canning

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Otherwise it usually implies a verdict that is destructive or annihilating in its effects

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if we fail, then we have riamned every man to be the slave of fear— Baruch

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Doom adds to condemn the implication of a punishment or penalty that cannot be evaded or escaped because imposed by an inexorable power

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I am thy father's spirit, doomed for a certain term to walk the night— Shak.

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he does certain things that are very brave ... he gambles that he can be terribly, tragically wrong, and therefore be doomed, you see, doomed to Hell— Mailer

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This idea of fate or destiny is so strongly stressed in doom that in some cases the implication of an adverse judgment is lost or obscured

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the city was doomed to destruction

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the substance of a scientific paper is incorporated into the general stock of knowledge; but the paper itself is doomed to oblivion— Huxley

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Proscribe implies the publication or posting of a decree condemning a person to banishment or death or announcing his status as an outlaw and the forfeiture of his property or of his civil rights

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a declaration . . . proscribed Napoleon as a public enemy, with whom neither peace nor truce could be concluded— Alison

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still a proscribed fugitive, but with the knowledge that he could at any time cause a formidable revolt— Stenton

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The word in more general uses suggests ostracism or interdiction as the result of a judgment by some authoritative or influential body or group

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dancing was once proscribed by many churches

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you . . . your rites, your garb proscribed, must yet receive one degradation more— Browning

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the individual is often blacklisted not because he is guilty of anything, but because he is . . . regarded as controversial and therefore proscribed— Elmer Rice

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Analogous words: *judge, adjudge, adjudicate: condemn, denounce, blame (see CRITICIZE): determine, settle, rule, *decide

Contrasted words: acquit, absolve, vindicate, exonerate, *exculpate