Emily Dickinson Lexicon

FATE, n. [L. fatum, from for, fari, to speak, whence fatus.]

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 chance / Approach not me; and what I will is fate. Milton.
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 Suffolk. Shak.
3. Final event; death; destruction. Yet still he chose the longest way to fate. Dryden. The whizzing arrow sings, / And bears thy fate, Antinous, on its wings. Pope.
4. Cause of death. Dryden calls an arrow a feathered fate. Divine fate, the order or determination of God; providence. Encyc.