1. Primarily, a decree or word pronounced by God; or a fixed sentence by which the order of things is prescribed. Hence, inevitable necessity; destiny depending on a superior cause and uncontrollable. According to the Stoics, every event is determined by fate.

Necessity or chancenot me; and what I will is fate.

2. Event predetermined; lot; destiny. It is our fate to meet with disappointments.

It is the fate of mortals.

Tell me what fates attend the duke of Suffolk?

3. Final event; death; destruction.

Yet still he chose the longest way to fate.

The whizzing arrow sings,

And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings.

4. Cause of death. Dryden calls an arrow a feathered fate.

Divine fate, the order or determination of God; providence.