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.
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) 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. In general use, when it carries this implication, it is often employed in curses, imprecations, or expressions of strong disapproval.
Otherwise it usually implies a verdict that is destructive or annihilating in its effects.
Doom adds to condemn the implication of a punishment or penalty that cannot be evaded or escaped because imposed by an inexorable power. 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.
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.
The word in more general uses suggests ostracism or interdiction as the result of a judgment by some authoritative or influential body or group.