Definition of "fate"

fate

/feɪt/

noun
countable and uncountable, plural fates
1. The presumed cause, force, principle, or divine will that predetermines events.
  Quotations
  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
2. The effect, consequence, outcome, or inevitable events predetermined by this cause.
3. An event or a situation which is inevitable in the fullness of time.
4. Destiny; often with a connotation of death, ruin, misfortune, etc.
5. (mythology) Alternative letter-case form of Fate (one of the goddesses said to control the destiny of human beings).
6. (biochemistry) The products of a chemical reaction in their final form in the biosphere.
  Quotations
  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, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution‎, retrieved 2 August 2022
7. (embryology) The mature endpoint of a region, group of cells or individual cell in an embryo, including all changes leading to that mature endpoint
verb
third-person singular simple present fates, present participle fating, simple past and past participle fated
1. (transitive) To foreordain or predetermine, to make inevitable.
  Quotations
  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

Englia uses cookies to improve user experience.