01 n. A fixed decree by which the order of things is prescribed; the immutable law of the universe; inevitable necessity; the force by which all …
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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.
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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.
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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.
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4.
The three goddesses, Clotho, Lachesis, and Atropos, sometimes called the Destinies, or Parcæwho 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.(Myth.) Also: Destinies, Parcæ