fate

plural fates

1. countableuncountableThe presumed cause, force, principle, or divine will that predetermines events.

   1 more example

   Captain Edward Carlisle[…]felt a curious sensation of helplessness seize upon him as he met her steady gaze,[…]; he could not tell what this prisoner might do. He cursed the fate which had assigned such a duty, cursed especially that fate which forced a gallant soldier to meet so superb a woman as this under handicap so hard.

   1910, Emerson Hough, chapter I, in The Purchase Price: Or The Cause of Compromise, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC

   Synonyms: destiny, natural order · Antonyms: free will

2. countableuncountableThe effect, consequence, outcome, or inevitable events predetermined by this cause.
3. countableuncountableAn event or a situation which is inevitable in the fullness of time.

   Synonyms: destiny · Antonyms: accident, chance

4. countableuncountableDestiny; often with a connotation of death, ruin, misfortune, etc.

   Accept your fate.

   Synonyms: doom, portion, wyrd · Antonyms: fortune, luck

5. countableuncountablehuman sciencesAlternative letter-case form of Fate (one of the goddesses said to control the destiny of human beings).
6. countableuncountablebiochemistryThe products of a chemical reaction in their final form in the biosphere.

   It’s important to research chemical fate because chemical fate is the best tool we have for understanding and managing human health risks or environmental damage caused by chemical release.

   2019 July 12, Danielle Freeman, “Archived copy”, in Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, archived from the original on 11 Oct 2022

7. countableuncountableembryologyThe mature endpoint of a region, group of cells or individual cell in an embryo, including all changes leading to that mature endpoint

   Synonyms: developmental pathway

present singular third person fates · participle present fating · participle past fated · past fated

1. transitiveTo foreordain or predetermine, to make inevitable.

   The oracle's prediction fated Oedipus to kill his father; not all his striving could change what would occur.

   2 more examples

   Before they met, Rebecca Guberman and Jennifer Jako were both certain they were fated to be alone.

   1999, Beverly Clark, Girlfriends, page 108

   At the conclusion of this part, Eric, who plays Jesus and is now a soldier, captures Violet in the forest, fating her to a concentration camp.

   2011, James Al-Shamma, Sarah Ruhl: A Critical Study of the Plays, page 119

1. Any one of the Fates.
2. A personification of fate (the cause that predetermines events).