Fate (?), n. [L. fatum a prophetic declaration,
oracle, what is ordained by the gods, destiny, fate, fr. fari to speak: cf. OF. fat. See Fame, Fable, Ban, and cf. 1st Fay, Fairy.]
1. A fixed
decree by which the order of things is prescribed; the immutable law of the universe; inevitable necessity; the force by which all existence is determined and conditioned.
Necessity and chance
Approach not me; and what I will is fate.
Milton. Beyond and above the
Olympian gods lay the silent, brooding, everlasting fate of which victim and tyrant were alike the
instruments.
Froude. 2.
Appointed lot; allotted life; arranged or predetermined event; destiny; especially, the final lot; doom; ruin; death.
The great, th'important day, big with
the fate
Of Cato and of
Rome.
Addison. Our wills and fates do so contrary run
That our devices still are overthrown.
Shak. The whizzing arrow sings,
And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings.
Pope. 3. The element of chance in
the affairs of life; the unforeseen and unestimated conitions considered as a force
shaping events; fortune; esp., opposing
circumstances against which
it is useless to struggle; as, fate was, or the fates were, against him.
A brave man struggling in the storms of
fate.
Pope. Sometimes an hour of Fate's serenest weather strikes through our changeful sky its coming beams.
B.
Taylor. 4. pl. [L.
Fata, pl. of fatum.] (Myth.) The three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, sometimes called
the Destinies, or
Parcæwho were supposed to determine the course of human life. They are represented, one as holding the distaff, a second as spinning, and the third as
cutting off the thread.
&fist; Among all nations it has been common to speak of fate or destiny as a
power superior to gods and men
-- swaying all things irresistibly. This may be called the fate of poets and mythologists.
Philosophical fate is the sum of the laws of the
universe, the product of eternal intelligence and the blind
properties of matter. Theological fate
represents Deity as above the laws of nature, and ordaining all things according to his will -- the expression of that will
being the law. Krauth- Fleming.
Syn. -- Destiny; lot; doom; fortune; chance.
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