doomed

1. 1
   adjective

   Certain to suffer death, failure, or some similarly bad outcome.

   Without new funding, the project is doomed to failure.

   The novel follows a doomed romance between two soldiers on opposite sides of the war.

   Similarcursed, done

   Oppositeblessed

2. 2
   verb

   Simple past and past participle of doom.

   A single tactical error doomed the campaign in its first week.

   The old king had doomed his own brother to exile.

   Note

   After be, the verb and the adjective wear the same form, and only the sentence tells them apart. Add a by-phrase naming the cause, as in the plan had been doomed by bad timing, and it is a verb, an event; was doomed standing alone tends to read as the adjective, a verdict on how things will end.

3. 3
   adjectivearchaic

   Destined by fate to some particular outcome, whether good or bad.

   The fortune teller insisted that the child was doomed to great wealth and a long life.

   Some people, the old priest said, are doomed to joy and others to sorrow.

   Similarfated, destined, predestined, preordained, foreordained

   Note

   Older English used it for any fate at all, happy or grim, and that neutral sense is now archaic. It only shows when a plainly good outcome follows, as in doomed to wealth or doomed to joy; otherwise readers hear the certain-to-fail meaning. Fated or foreordained says it without the shadow.

Showing meanings only. Show all 3