\Fate\, n. [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.