From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Destiny \Des"ti*ny\, noun; pl. {Destinies}. [OE. destinee, destene, F. destin['e]e, from destiner. See {Destine}.]
1. That to which any person or thing is destined; predetermined state; condition foreordained by the Divine or by human will; fate; lot; doom.
Thither he Will come to know his destiny. --Shak.
No man of woman born, Coward or brave, can shun his destiny. --Bryant.
2. The fixed order of things; invincible necessity; fate; a resistless power or agency conceived of as determining the future, whether in general or of an individual.
But who can turn the stream of destiny? --Spenser.
Fame comes only when deserved, and then is as inevitable as destiny, for it is destiny. --Longfellow.
{The Destinies} (Anc. Myth.), the three Parc[ae], or Fates; the supposed powers which preside over human life, and determine its circumstances and duration.
Marked by the Destinies to be avoided. --Shak.
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
noun
1: an event (or a course of events) that will inevitably happen in the future [syn: {fate}]
2: the ultimate agency that predetermines the course of events (often personified as a woman); "we are helpless in the face of Destiny" [syn: {Fate}]
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}, {fate}, {luck}, {lot}, {circumstances}, {portion}]
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
184 Moby Thesaurus words for "destiny": Friday, Friday the thirteenth, Heaven, Paradise, Z, a better place, accidentality, actuarial calculation, adventitiousness, afterlife, afterworld, allotment, allowance, apodosis, appointed lot, astral influences, astrology, big end, bigger half, bit, bite, book of fate, break, budget, casualness, catastrophe, ceasing, cessation, chance, chunk, circumstance, coda, commission, conclusion, constellation, consummation, contingent, crack of doom, culmination, cup, curtain, curtains, cut, deal, death, decease, denouement, design, destination, dies funestis, dividend, dole, doom, effect, end, end point, ending, envoi, epilogue, equal share, eschatology, eternal home, expiration, fatality, fate, final solution, final twitch, final words, finale, finality, finis, finish, flukiness, 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, indeterminacy, indeterminateness, inevitability, intent, intention, interest, izzard, karma, kismet, last, last breath, last gasp, last things, last trumpet, last words, latter end, law of averages, life after death, life to come, lot, luck, measure, meed, mess, modicum, moiety, moira, next world, objective, omega, opportunity, otherworld, part, payoff, percentage, period, peroration, piece, planets, portion, postexistence, principle of indeterminacy, probability, problematicness, proportion, quantum, quietus, quota, rake-off, random sample, ration, resolution, resting place, risk, run of luck, segment, serendipity, share, slice, small share, stake, stars, statistical probability, stock, stoppage, stopping place, swan song, 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, uncertainty, uncertainty principle, unlucky day, weird, what bodes, what is fated, whatever comes, wheel of fortune, will of Heaven, windup, world to come
From THE DEVIL'S DICTIONARY ((C)1911 Released April 15 1993) [devils]:
DESTINY, noun A tyrant's authority for crime and fool's excuse for failure.
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