From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Fate \Fate\ (f[=a]t), noun [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 {Parc[ae]}who 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.
Note: 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.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future [syn: {destiny}]
2: the ultimate agency that predetermines the course of events (often personified as a woman); "we are helpless in the face of Destiny" [syn: {Destiny}]
3: your overall circumstances or condition in life (including everything that happens to you); "whatever my fortune may be"; "deserved a better fate"; "has a happy lot"; "the luck of the Irish"; "a victim of circumstances"; "success that was her portion" [syn: {fortune}, {destiny}, {luck}, {lot}, {circumstances}, {portion}]
verb
1: decree or designate beforehand; "She was destined to become a great pianist" [syn: {destine}, {doom}, {designate}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
250 Moby Thesaurus words for "fate": Friday, Friday the thirteenth, Heaven, Paradise, Z, a better place, accidentality, act of God, actuarial calculation, adventitiousness, afterlife, afterworld, allocate, allot, allotment, allowance, apodosis, appoint, appointed lot, appropriate to, assign, assign to, astral influences, astrology, bane, big end, bigger half, bit, bite, book of fate, break, budget, casualness, catastrophe, ceasing, certainty, cessation, chance, chunk, circumstance, coda, collapse, commission, conclusion, consequence, constellation, consummation, contingent, crack of doom, culmination, cup, curtain, curtains, cut, deal, death, death knell, deathblow, decease, denouement, destinate, destination, destine, destiny, destruction, detail, determine, devote, dies funestis, disaster, disposition, dividend, dole, doom, downfall, earmark, effect, end, end point, ending, envoi, epilogue, equal share, eschatology, eternal home, expiration, fatality, fatefulness, final solution, final twitch, final words, finale, finality, finis, finish, flukiness, force majeure, foredoom, fortuitousness, fortuity, fortune, future, future state, gamble, goal, good fortune, good luck, half, halver, hap, happenstance, happy chance, heedless hap, helping, home, how they fall, ides of March, indefeasibility, indeterminacy, indeterminateness, ineluctability, inescapableness, inevasibleness, inevitability, inevitable accident, inevitableness, inexorability, inflexibility, interest, irrevocability, issue, izzard, karma, kismet, last, last breath, last gasp, last things, last trumpet, last words, latter end, law of averages, life, life after death, life to come, lot, luck, make assignments, mark, mark off, mark out for, measure, meed, mess, modicum, moiety, moira, necessity, nemesis, next world, omega, opportunity, ordain, otherworld, outcome, part, payoff, percentage, period, peroration, piece, planets, portion, portion off, postexistence, predetermination, preordain, principle of indeterminacy, probability, problematicness, proportion, providence, quantum, quietus, quota, rake-off, random sample, ration, relentlessness, reserve, resolution, resting place, restrict, restrict to, result, risk, ruin, run of luck, schedule, segment, serendipity, set, set apart, set aside, set off, share, slice, small share, stake, stars, statistical probability, stock, stoppage, stopping place, sureness, swan song, tag, term, terminal, termination, terminus, the beyond, the breaks, the good hereafter, the grave, the great beyond, the great hereafter, the hereafter, the unknown, theory of probability, unavoidable casualty, unavoidableness, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, uncontrollability, undeflectability, undoing, unlucky day, unpreventability, unyieldingness, upshot, vis major, weird, what bodes, what is fated, whatever comes, wheel of fortune, will of Heaven, windup, world to come
From U.S. Gazetteer (1990) [gazetteer]:
Fate, TX (city, FIPS 25572) Location: 32.94079 N, 96.38629 W Population (1990): 475 (176 housing units) Area: 10.9 sq km (land), 0.0 sq km (water)
From U.S. Gazetteer Places (2000) [gaz-place]:
Fate, TX -- U.S. city in Texas Population (2000): 497 Housing Units (2000): 184 Land area (2000): 4.730197 sq. miles (12.251153 sq. km) Water area (2000): 0.016616 sq. miles (0.043035 sq. km) Total area (2000): 4.746813 sq. miles (12.294188 sq. km) FIPS code: 25572 Located within: Texas (TX), FIPS 48 Location: 32.933781 N, 96.384482 W ZIP Codes (1990): Note: some ZIP codes may be omitted esp. for suburbs. Headwords: Fate, TX Fate
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