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Fate


FATE, noun [Latin fatum, from for, fari, to speak, whence fatus.]

1. Primarily, a decree or word pronounced by God; or a fixed sentence by which the order of things is prescribed. Hence, inevitable necessity; destiny depending on a superior cause and uncontrollable. According to the Stoics, every event is determined by fate

Necessity or chancenot me; and what I will is fate

2. Event predetermined; lot; destiny. It is our fate to meet with disappointments.

It is the fate of mortals.

Tell me what fates attend the duke of Suffolk?

3. Final event; death; destruction.

Yet still he chose the longest way to fate

The whizzing arrow sings,

And bears thy fate Antinous, on its wings.

4. Cause of death. Dryden calls an arrow a feathered fate

Divine fate the order or determination of God; providence.