FATES
Noun
fates
plural of fate
Verb
fates
(rare) Third-person singular simple present indicative form of fate
Anagrams
• Festa, TAFEs, feast, feats, festa, fetas
Etymology
Plural of fate.
Proper noun
Fates
(Greek mythology) Atropos, Clotho, and Lachesis; supernatural beings who controlled the destiny of men and of the gods.
Synonyms
• Moirae (Greek mythology), Parcae (Roman mythology), Sudice (Slavic mythology)
Anagrams
• Festa, TAFEs, feast, feats, festa, fetas
Source: Wiktionary
FATE
Fate, n. Etym: [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. Etym: [L. Fata, pl. of fatum.] (Myth.)
Definition: 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.
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.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition