For"tune , v. i. To fall out; to happen.
It fortuned the same night that a Christian, serving a Turk in the camp, secretely gave the watchmen warning.
Knolles.
For"tune , v. t. [OF. fortuner, L. fortunare. See Fortune, n.]
1. To make fortunate; to give either good or bad fortune to. [Obs.]
Chaucer.
2. To provide with a fortune.
Richardson.
3. To presage; to tell the fortune of. [Obs.]
Dryden.
For"tune (fôr"t&usl;n; 135), n. [F. fortune, L. fortuna; akin to fors, fortis,
chance, prob. fr. ferre to bear, bring. See Bear to support, and cf. Fortuitous.]
1. The arrival of something in a sudden or unexpected manner; chance; accident; luck; hap; also, the
personified or deified power regarded as determining human success, apportioning happiness and unhappiness, and distributing arbitrarily or fortuitously
the lots of life.
'T is more by fortune, lady, than by merit.
Shak. O Fortune, Fortune, all men call thee
fickle.
Shak.
2. That which befalls or is to befall
one; lot in
life, or event in any
particular undertaking; fate; destiny; as, to tell one's fortune.
You, who men's fortunes in their faces read.
Cowley.
3. That which comes as the result
of an undertaking or of a course of action; good or ill success; especially, favorable issue; happy event; success; prosperity as reached partly by chance and
partly by effort.
Our equal crimes shall equal fortune give.
Dryden. There is a tide in the affairs of
men,
Which, taken at the
flood, leads on to fortune.
Shak. His father dying, he was driven
to seek his
fortune.
Swift. 4. Wealth; large possessions; large estate; riches; as, a
gentleman of fortune.
Syn. -- Chance; accident; luck; fate.
Fortune book, a book supposed to reveal future events to those who
consult it.
Crashaw. -- Fortune hunter, one who seeks to acquire wealth by marriage. -- Fortune teller, one who professes to tell future events in the life of another. -- Fortune
telling, the practice or art of professing to reveal future events in the life of another.
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