I. ˈfāt, usu -ād.+V noun
(-s)
Etymology: Middle English, from Latin or Middle French; Middle French fate, from Latin fatum prophetic declaration, oracle, what is ordained by the gods, destiny, fate, from neuter of fatus, past participle of fari to speak — more at ban
1.
a. : the principle or determining cause or will by which things in general are supposed to come to be as they are or events to happen as they do
b. : foreordination by which either the universe as a whole or particular happenings are predetermined ; specifically : necessity as inherent in the nature of things to which the gods as well as men are subject
fate in Greek tragedy becomes the order of nature in modern thought — A.N.Whitehead
— compare determinism
2.
a. : whatever is destined or inevitably decreed especially for a person : an appointed lot
her fate was to remain a spinster
b. : ruin , disaster ; especially : death
the villain met his fate at the hands of the hero
c. : ultimate lot or disposition : final outcome : end
the congress decided the bill's fate by a single vote
the explorer's party left no trace of the fate that overcame them
the importance of an individual thinker … depends upon the fate of his ideas in the mind of his successors — A.N.Whitehead
d. : the circumstances that befall something
all human beings live as members of organized groups and have their fate inextricably bound up with that of the group to which they belong — Ralph Linton
3. : one of the goddesses of fate or destiny especially of classical times supposed to determine the course of human life — usually used in plural and then sometimes cap.
waiting there, standing like a fate in the center of the carpet, a gaunt, gray, somber woman — G.W.Brace
my great-aunts, formidable fates who sat in judgment on all the events of their time — Hugh Dickinson
the fates … have smiled with an astonishing kindness on his wanderings in the jungle — Geographical Journal
Synonyms:
fate , destiny , lot , portion , and doom agree in signifying the condition or end decreed by a higher power. fate presupposes a determining supernatural or divine agency, as the gods, God, or the law of necessity, and usually implies inevitability, but can extend to include a human agency whose decision is finally determinative, in both applications usually implying a more or less adverse condition or end
no matter how absurd or meaningless our fate may be, we still must accept it and play our role — J.M.O'Brien
through knowledge man can control his own fate — Abram Kardiner
it is the fate of all these lakes to disappear — American Guide Series: Minnesota
preparing for the end, for the final grim defense, when his men would retreat upon the one last strong fort, and there await their fate — Gilbert Parker
the fate of the congressional bill was uncertain
destiny implies an irrevocable determination, course, or appointment, as by the will of the gods, but out of context specifies neither a good nor bad course or end, more often, possibly, implying a course conceived of as good by the one destined because it is conceived of as a natural fulfillment
not to impose their view of life upon any people but to inspire in all peoples an understanding of their common destiny — Stephen Duggan
for good or ill, that clubfoot, like the mark of Jason in her life, had been his destiny — Ellen Glasgow
always had with him, too, the special conviction of destiny — that his was a great age of history, and that he was born to act in and dominate these times — Henry Wallace
the conception of a lordly splendid destiny for the human race, to which we are false when we revert to wars and other atavistic folies — Bertrand Russell
lot and portion imply a distribution by fate or destiny, lot suggesting more a blind chance, portion implying a more or less fair apportioning of good and evil
shunned extremes of passion or suffering, declaring that these were seldom the common lot — Encyc. Americana
it fell to the lot of the United States to scrap thirty-two ships — C.E.Black & E.C.Helmreich
poverty was his portion all his days — Kemp Malone
a feeling of guilty remorse was her daily portion — Susan Ertz
she is not the saint he deems it the portion of every creature wearing petticoats to be — George Meredith
doom implies a final, usually grim and calamitous, award or fate
thirty-two brave men of Gonzales, who marched in even after the doom of the fort seemed certain — American Guide Series: Texas
lured unsuspecting ships to their doom on the rocks on dark and stormy nights — Richard Joseph
the poor beast's ribs stood out under a coating of snow as it stood there, awaiting its doom — F.V.W.Mason
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
: destine
the two seemed fated for each other
also : doom
the deep antipathy … seeming to fate them to antagonism — Les Savage
novel about a fated beauty — Newsweek
III.
dialect Britain
variant of feat
IV. noun
: the expected result of normal development
prospective fate of embryonic cells